-Buffy the Vampire Slayer: MacGuffins-

Cover Artist: Mike Mignola

Writer:	J.L. Van Meter
Penciller:	Luke Ross
Inker:	Rick Ketcham
Letterer:	Steve Dutro
Colorist:	Guy Major
Format:	Comic
Details:	64 pages - $4.95 US
Published:	August 26, 1998
Publisher:	Dark Horse
Story:	MacGuffins

Buffy's first comic release, -MacGuffins-, was just a short story in this publisher collection alongside Hellboy and others.

I doubt anyone could have predicted the impact Buffy's entrance into the comic-world eventually would have. No disrespect to any of the artists involved, but they didn't exactly catch the spirit of Buffy in this attempt. Well, with the exception of writer Van Meter. He actually managed to write a little story that captured a lot of Buffy's core and that Sunnydale-feel, despite not even taking place in Sunnydale. The art-work from Ross and Ketchum did however leave me feeling like they had no idea who Buffy was. Their Buffy felt like a semi-bimbo, and that's no way to threat The Chosen One.

★★☆☆☆ -MacGuffins-

-Dollhouse: Epitaphs-

Phil Noto's cover of the one-shot

One-shot, comics #1-5 incl. a special edition

Wanting to ease back into comics, I went for the one-shot and the shorter mini-series based on Whedon's Dollhouse, rather than opening with the monstrous volumes of the Buffyverse, or my fan illusions of Firefly and its 'verse. Comics based on popular shows or movies are difficult. You'll always have the prior knowledge of the created universe, the character's habits and core and so on, and it isn't always easy to accept other artists takes on those.

In Whedon's cases that's usually no problem, at least not since the release of Buffy Season Eight and then the later releases from any Whedonverse, as it's become a habit of himself and his own staff-writers from these shows to get heavily involved. In the case of these six releases (one one-shot and five comics in the mini-series), the writers are Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen and Andrew Chambliss, all staff-writers from the Dollhouse TV-show. It ain't hard to take their take on these characters then, as they're all involved in the creation to begin with.

For those familiar with the TV-show, and my opinion is you should all be or become, these comics takes place in a timeline closely related to the events in the show's episodes "Epitaph One" and "Epitaph Two: Return", which ended each of the two seasons of the show. They offer some answers to stuff we wondered about after watching the show, but mostly they offer a lot more insight into some of the show's characters.

Overall it's interesting enough to stand on its own legs, and I would most definitely buy more Dollhouse comics from these guys when they're ready to tell new stories. They have the characters down and they understand the humor. Still. They're not quite great, mostly thanks to the storyline they chose to open with. I would've hoped they opened in another direction to help gather the fans of the show behind its release.



★★★☆☆ Epitaphs one-shot & mini-series (#1-5)

I did love the cover art for each of the issues... Here Fiona Staples's #1 cover.

-Morning Glories-

I came late to the party, but Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the following drips of Angel and Dollhouse have also awakened an interest in comics again, as they've all had comics released and many of them with Whedon somewhat involved. I haven't read comics much the past twenty years, since I left behind The Phantom and Disney's Donald Duck. The one exception is Modesty Blaise, which I've read all along. As I've now fallen in love with the Buffyverse, I've had to invest in the comics as well. I'll be reading them in their released order once I begin, but for now I've tasted a little of other comics including those based on Whedon's Dollhouse.

The first comics returning me to the form are still unrelated to Whedon in any way, but somehow I've picked up the name Nick Spencer along the way. As a result I invested in the first two tradebacks collecting the first 12 issues of Morning Glories, each with six issues collected, written by Spencer, art by Joe Eisma and cover art by Rodin Esquejo.

It's as ambitious as any great TV-show you've ever or never watched, and has a certain Lost feel to it. We follow the six newest students at the Morning Glory Academy, a boarding school unlike anything you've ever attended. There's a lot going on behind the scene, and our new students early realize there's a lot wrong about this place. Spencer give us drips of information, but spreads it out over time. He still manages to keep it very interesting, where others often fail to do so when keeping their story going for a while, and I for one am hooked. I'll keep buying these tradebacks as they're released. Hopefully Spencer manages to keep the interest going.

Oh. I wouldn't be very surprised if this is the next comic to make adaptions into the TV-show format following the success of The Walking Dead. There's just a lot of great storytelling here, easily adaptable onto the silver screen.


★★★★☆ Volume 1
★★★★☆ Volume 2

"Alcatraz" (2012 ->)

Once upon a time the name J.J. Abrams gave you anticipation. These days his name is everywhere, and rarely any of the shows are interesting. Thinking back at the first season of Alcatraz, his latest involvement, brings me back to the words of Tim Surette over at tv.com:

"You know what I find interesting? That a serialized drama with a huge story to tell and only a 13-episode first season to tell it in could completely skip an episode and not miss a beat in season-long arcs."

He said so reviewing the double feature of episodes 9 and 10, which Fox jumped ahead to according to their initial schedule after episode 8 got pushed back due to some sports overtime or something like that. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Alcatraz have a lot in common with another project carrying the Abrams name as executive producer and creator, Fringe. They are both exploring events out of the ordinary, with sci-fi elements as well as science, and they are both trying to tell three stories at once. Of course Fringe does so well, and there's the problem. Alcatraz doesn't succeed on any of their three levels. The weekly procedurals are uninteresting, they have failed to keep progress on their arch story according to time spent and their 60's stories are just plain boring.

Of course Fringe's first season wasn't the greatest either, but at least they offered more interesting stuff on at least parts of what they tried to do and they had actors who captured us. Other shows like Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, at least I'm told, Breaking Bad also really get things going in later seasons, which buys Alcatraz some room to grow if allowed by the network. I doubt it will happen, even if I haven't exactly kept an eye on Alcatraz' ratings, and I can't see this show being renewed for another season.

It's not awful. While I notice many viewers elsewhere have more than a few questions about leading lady Sarah Jones' acting, she's kind of grown on me. Not a lot, but I just mostly think they use her wrong... I've got a lot more concern to throw around for the rest of the cast, as there's several problems lurking elsewhere.

Anyway. I've watched the season as its aired along, and learned little new. It's not like I'll look forward to the new season if renewed, but learning from other shows I'll probably give it a couple of episodes to work out its kinks. If they do continue down the same path, they'll for sure lose my interest pretty quickly.

★★☆☆☆ Season 1

C64 Nostalgia

There's a lot of different sayings about how everything was better in the old days, and they're pretty much bullshit. Let's face it. The 80's didn't have a lot going for it. The movies were crap, the music you won't hear anywhere anymore, the TV-shows hadn't yet reached the golden age and I guess even the comic world had some dip there? But they had Commodore 64...

If I look back at my gamer days (oh; I've pretty much retired from gaming these days), I've probably spent more time on the Championship Manager series and its follow-up Football Manager series, than on everything else combined. It's still the C64-games I remember most fondly with nostalgia, even if that's not because of its football manager games...

I did play quite a lot of The Boss (Youtubed above), Football Manager and a couple of other titles, but those weren't the ones I'm talking about as my nostalgia.

Yesterday I read a news-article about a remake of Spy vs Spy coming soon (probably at iPhones and iPads), and it got me surfing Youtube and memory lane equally as Spy vs Spy is one of those fond memories. Tripping over videos like this one about 20 defining C64 games..

...just kept me searching back for more. Of course the games these days have great graphic, multiplayer options and so on and so forth, but there's really no substitute for these old classics. I've played games at my newer PC's, at Nintendo's first 8-bit, Playstation and X-box, but there's still more games from the C64 days I remember fondly than all those newer ones combined. Then again there's something to be said about having experiences at a certain stage of life. Here's 50 C64 games in 5 minutes...

..and a lot of those I've played obsessively back in the day. And I remember the duels with friends and neighbors with classics like Winter Games, Summer Games (I&II), World Games, California Games and Hyper Sports, crushing joysticks with Decathlon or concentrating on your own against games like Aztec Challenger and Tapper. These days you play war against players all over the world, but back then we at least had the Rambo's. His own game First Blood and a lot like it with Commando, Who Dares Win, Green Beret and similar ones. And those martial art's match-ups following International Karate. It was simpler times, but we didn't care about the graphic pixels and the simple road ahead. It was about gameplay, heart, soul and a lot of creative platforms. And then the best of all...

The soundtracks of C64 games changed the world, and it's still enough to almost make an old man cry to listen to these and others. We had to load games, but many of the load-screens were epic. And some of them had the soundtracks to make eager anticipation run through you. I honestly feel like searching for my old C64 (as emulators aren't my thing), because I could so easily do with some time playing Ghostbusters, River Raid, The Last Ninja, Boulder Dash, Action Biker or one of the hundreds of games I enjoyed back when real life simulation in games was a pipe dream. I throw in another classic assembling video for good measures. This one with 28 games and original audio, and some overlapping the 20 defining ones..

Press play on tape...

Buzzmakers and Heartbreakers

As this TV-season comes to an end, I once again conclude I can hardly find new shows keeping my interest these days. No new Friday Night Lights to immediately grab my interest. No new The Big Bang Theory to make me laugh. No new Fringe to blow my mind. I'm not keeping too close tabs on pilots making buzz, but I can make lists about leading roles that would insure me grabbing hold of the first episode no matter the premise presented. I'll avoid those already doing airing shows with secure jobs for the involved, and I'll focus on actors and actresses with at least a past heavily influenced by TV rather than movies. Inspiring this lists is Amanda Peet's new show Bent, as ever since Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip I've been longing to see her do TV again.

Female

1. Eliza Dushku

She wouldn't have sprung to mind last year at this time, but after getting acquainted through the wonderful world of Whedon she's now a guarantee for my interest. Her Echo of Dollhouse and Faith of the Buffyverse, including both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, are the main sources of interest.There's just too much about her to do guest appearances at shows like The Big Bang Theory, White Collar and The League.

2. Amber Tamblyn

Her past from Joan of Arcadia and The Unusuals make me a sure target audience for whatever she decides to try on the silver screen.

3. Adrianne Palicki

Tyra Collette at Friday Night Lights, Wonder Woman in a pilot that didn't get picked up and all around assurance of my interest.

4. Maria Bello

After being busy in the world of movies, Maria returned to TV for the US remake of Prime Suspect. No wonder it got cancelled, but seeing her in TV again was great. I still remember her days at Mr. & Mrs. Smith fondly.

5. Yvonne Strahovski

Chuck has closed down the spy-life, and her Sarah Walker sure spiked my interest. Anything rolling out the red carpet for her return to my screen is sure to capture my attention.

6. Sophia Myles

Her stints at Moonlight and Spooks are more than enough to assure my interest, even if no-one else have ever heard of her.

7. Traylor Howard

Monk has closed down set a couple of years ago, and it's about time she gets back on the horse. Also a familiar face from her youth on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place along with superstars Nathan Fillion and Ryan Reynolds.

8. Stacey Farber

From youngster at Degrassi: The Next Generation, I followed her to ended 18 to Life, so I've pretty much proved I'll follow everywhere.

9. Shiri Appleby

From the time back at Roswell, I'm still looking to pick up more. That's probably why I'll tune in when Dating Rules from My future Self airs soon.

10. Jessy Schram

So she's never held a leading role, bur her performances in Veronica Mars, Life and feature film  Unstoppable are more than enough for me to still hope she soon will.

Honorary. Amanda Bynes

If anybody lures her out of her early retirement to do comedy or at least something with a lot of wit, I'd love it. She would easily top my list if she didn't retire.

The in-ones:

A lot of the talent out there is obviously occupied with shows, and here are a few of the many actresses I'd follow if they jumped ship; Anna Torv (Fringe), Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory), Bethany Joy Galeotti (One Tree Hill), Poppy Montgomery (Unforgettable...a possible upcoming cancel), A.J. Cock (Criminal Minds), Amy Jo Johnson (Flashpoint), Emily VanCamp (Revenge), Emily Rose (Haven)

Male

1. Bradley Whitford

The Good Guys wasn't anything special, but Bradley had no problems making me get through all aired episodes. Looking back at his days on The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip assures my interest in anything new with him in a leading role.

2. Kyle Chandler

Looking back at his amazingly consistent performances at Friday Night Lights, there's hopefully more TV to come than just movie roles like Super 8 from this guy.

3. James Marsters

After doing  Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I'm all for giving him a leading role carrying a show.

4. Adam Baldwin

After his stints on Firefly and Chuck, I'll follow him blindly into his next project.

5. Taylor Kitsch

The guy might be busy getting his movie career off ground, but his Friday Night Lights role as Tim Riggins is still too fresh to not hope for reappearance on the silver screen.

6. Jeremy Piven

He might have caught everybody with his Ari Gold on Entourage, but I was already captured way back when he did Cupid and had such chemistry with Paula Marshall.

7. Fran Kranz

Upon his great performance as Topher Brink at Dollhouse, I hope to see more from him on TV as he's now done with his Whedon reunion in feature film Cabin in the Woods.

8. Brett Butt

Excellent in Corner Gas. Hiccups was a big letdown, but it's cancelled and he's free to take on something new.

9. Stephen Root

While it's great to have him stop by every now and again on Justified, I'd rather have him back full time like he did back in the days as Jimmy James on NewsRadio.

10. Timothy Busfield

So. Maybe Aaron Sorkin and his guys are the only ones to see his talent, but I'd give his show a chance any day.

The in-ones

A lot of the talent out there is obviously occupied with shows, and here are a few of the many actors I'd follow if they jumped ship; Nathan Fillion (Castle), Joshua Jackson & John Noble (Fringe), Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), Michael Weatherly (NCIS), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint)

There's enough examples of following actors and actresses that give me nightmares. Lets just hope none of the above listed ever turn into a show like...

House of Lies

I've followed Kristen Bell into many rabbit holes since her days as Veronica Mars. This is the last one out, and so far by far the worst of those.

I didn't spend too much time researching this, so there's obviously gonna be some who didn't spring to mind. TV-land is hugely populated, and there's just not enough megabytes in my brain to keep cued in on everything. So don't shoot me just because I forgot some actor or actress who feels obvious to you... Rather just shoot me a comment about them.

RtC: "Friday Night Lights" (2006-2011)

Adapted from a book and a movie, Friday Night Lights was a TV-show unlike anything you've ever seen before. How a show could start its airing by a voice on the radio talking about the local high school football-team, to become a show with more heart than any other... It's quite a ride, including a writer strike threatening its existence, a strange collaboration to air it twice around and some misguiding marketing, just to mention a few of its behind the show problems.

I love FNL, I love Dillon and I love quite a few of the characters on this show. With those simple facts I'll move on to the whys, the greatness and the heart and soul of a community.

FNL isn't about football, and because it isn't about football it lost out on a lot of fans in its original marketing as a show about football. FNL is about life. Its drama the way drama should be; with a core to draw from, but spreading its wings to include an ensemble cast taking on real life problems. While they do get melodramatic some times, they mostly get away with it because of their big god-damn thumping hearts.

FNL is also produced and shot interestingly. They offered their actors a lot of freedom with their lines, cues and movement, while still being scripted, and then shot it with three cameras in a one-take mind. On one side some might say it doesn't really look that great because of this, as there's almost never that perfect lightning of all characters that other shows strives to get. But the rewards are awesome for those who take the real life feel and dialogue/scene-realism over the esthetics. It just feels a lot more raw and powerful.

Developed to TV by the feature film director Peter Berg (who happens to be second cousin of the book's author Buzz Bissinger) and heavily influenced by Jason Katims (Roswell) as writer, executive producer and show-runner.

And then there's the casting. It's an amazing ensemble for a TV-show, and whether it's leading star Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) or small time support Billy Riggins (Derek Phillips) on screen, it sure feels like the characters and not actors. I guess I've mentioned something like this before, but Kyle Chandler did, week in and week out, shine as Coach Taylor; making Brad Pitt's performance in feature film success Moneyball look kind of shabby. I should also mention Connie Britton as Tami Taylor, Adrianne Palicki as Tyra Collette and Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins. These four are probably the stand-out performers overall, even if I personally got a soft spot for Aimee Teegarden as Julie Taylor as well. It shouldn't be forgotten that nevertheless this is an ensemble performance more than anything.

Season one is the only one with a full length season, running 22 episodes, and it's by far the strongest one as a result. In fact; when it comes to drama you're hard pressed to find a better first season than this. How a town can be defined so quickly and its characters taking on such a diverse set of problems is inspiring. Is it really possible to fall in love with a town so obsessed with high school football? Sooner or later you might find out Dillon is a hard town to shake, whether you saw it coming or not.

Season two got butchered by the writing strike, and as a result ended cliffhangerly with only 15 of the ordered 22 episodes produced and aired. For a while the show was in real danger of being cut after that, but somehow it managed to come back in half-season format for three more seasons. Overall the second season might be my least favorite one, and it wasn't just because of the way it got cut. It had more problems than just that, but it picked itself up and managed to come back with even more momentum.

I'm not going to go into detail about each season, but rather pray you check it out for yourself. If you like drama, this is the show for you. Or if you like coming of age stories, there's quite a few of them here. Even if it's really not a football show, but a show around the team's players, coaches and boosters, you should still check it out if you like football or even any other sport... It's just that good, you don't need to like many of its elements to fall completely in love with the heart of it all.

Sure... It's also flawed and it had the potential to be even bigger, even better and so on and so forth. Still. You really have to search high and wide to find a show with more heart than this golden piece of Texas. And that's also why the overall comes out better than the sum of its pieces...

★★★★★ Season 1
★★★☆☆ Season 2
★★★★☆ Season 3
★★★★☆ Season 4
★★★☆☆ Season 5


★★★★★ Overall Quality


★★★★★ Revisit Value

FNL is one of those rare shows I've followed from the beginning, and loved it a little bit more for each week. You can't put a quality- or value-stamp on that, but there's no doubt it's something special the few times a show manages to be something like this for you. When you can't wait to watch what happens next week. When the time between seasons is agonizingly long. When you revisit the show's aired seasons before the beginning of each new season. FNL has been that show for me for years, and coming back to it is like revisiting old friends. I can't believe more people didn't follow this each and every step, but it's not too late. There's still a lot of quality entertainment to be had, even if you came late to the party. Friday Night Lights is highly recommended, and I'll miss it deeply.

I also like to mention there's rumors of a feature film to come, and I'm really looking forward to the day Berg and co again take on something new in this journey.