RIP - Lee Thompson Young (Rizzoli & Isles)

Detective Frost at the computer, where he was so often

It's a real tragedy when somebody as young as 29 years old dies, and even more of one when it's self-inflicted. When it's somebody you welcome into your home on a weekly basis for thirteen weeks or so a year, it hits even a little bit harder.

I was watching a recording of the latest Rizzoli & Isles episode this morning. After enjoying yet another well-made episode, I was looking around the Net and stumbled upon an article noting that the funeral for Lee Thompson Young (who played Detective Frost so brilliantly) had died a number of days ago of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

To say this made me sad is an understatement.

It just seems so senseless from the outside looking in like we all are. It seems that these people have a very good life, with a great job and wonderful co-workers (it sounds like it's a very close cast, with Angie Harmon breaking down in tears as she was speaking at his service). How could somebody so young who apparently had it made do something like this to himself?

But we can't know what demons are haunting these people on our television screens, lurking in the background. I read somewhere that he had been suffering from depression. I don't know if that's true, but if it is, it's certainly one explanation.

Whatever the case may be, a great show has been robbed of one of its great actors, and fans of the show will miss the gentle humour and warmth that Young brought to the Frost character. His grin was infectious, and one of my favourite parts of a recent episode was when Frost and Frankie Rizzoli (Jane's brother and another detective) were looking through an eccentric old man's stuff looking for why somebody would try and kill him. They were finding a lot of neat memorabilia and happened upon an EMP gun. And then when they set it off, they blew out all of the circuits on the police cars that were around the crime scene.

Their giddiness as they went through all of this stuff was hilarious but also quite touching.

It was that gentle soul, the man who would get sick at the sight of blood yet soldier on in the Homicide unit, the guy who kept a robot action figure on his desk, that Young brought so much heart to.

I didn't know Young as a "real" person; I only saw him on my screen. But my heart still goes out to him and those who actually did know him.

My condolences go to Young's family and colleagues, as well as to the fans who will miss him as the series goes on without him.

May you be in a happier place, Mr. Young.

The 3-D Experience

I enjoy a well-done 3-D movie. The animated movie Up brilliantly uses 3-D to immerse viewers in the world the filmmakers have created. Even though it's animated, it feels much more real than some other movies. There are very few "flying eyeballs" (our affectionate term for when 3-D movies concentrate their 3-D effects on having things come out of the screen at you). After a while, you don't even notice the 3-D, other than just realizing that you feel a part of the world.

How many of these people are really asleep? Thanks to Michal Husak on WikiCommons

Most 3-D experiences are not like this. Sometimes they are tacked on, converted from a traditional print just because the movie companies think that everybody wants 3-D. It looks fake and takes you out of the movie.

So studios think that people want 3-D so much that they are making "regular" movies into 3-D as well? Seriously, does The Great Gatsby need to be in 3-D?

Movie sales would seem to differ.

The Dangers of Formula in a TV Series

Many episodic TV shows have a formula they stick to. For a wildly popular show, that formula is sort of the "brand" that keeps people coming back and watching the show. They sometimes deviate from it, but unless the deviation is quite creative, fans can sometimes rebel against it.

Note that I'm not talking about shows that have one continuous story that goes from week to week, like The Walking Dea or Lost or something like that.

I actually do enjoy when a show tells a lot of different types of stories using different formats. The various Star Trek series would veer from super-serious drama to light-hearted comedy to science spectacle (though the science was often laughable) and back, all in one season. The Las Vegas CSI show often has a few comedy episodes to break up the monotony of all that serious death and murder (something I think the Miami show could learn from, at least the first few seasons that I saw in syndication before I stopped watching it).

But other shows have a formula and they stick to it. If it's very successful, why deviate?

In this day and age, that can be dangerous.

Take Castle, for instance.

The Wonder of Nathan Fillion

Actors usually come in one of a couple different formats. Either they're true stars that shine off the screen no matter what they're in, where you go to see the movie or watch the TV show just because of them.

Then there are the types who successfully blend in to any script and story that they appear in. You may not be going to see the movie because of them, but you know that when you see them, they're going to give you an outstanding performance. They add to the wonder of a movie. Even if the movie or show is bad, you can at least say "this actor was good despite the material."

Then there are those who lie outside of those two boxes, or maybe they straddle both of them. They are a rare breed.

Nathan Fillion is one of these actors.

I first stumbled across Fillion in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog where he played Neil Patrick Harris' nemesis, Captain Hammer. I thought he did fine, but didn't really think anything of it.

A Television Icon Returns - And Nobody's Shot Him...Yet

I was watching something on TV last week, and saw an ad for the Summer shows on Bravo TV up here in Canada. And one of the ones that slipped by very quickly seemed to have a familiar face in it.

I turned to my wife and said "Was that Dallas?"

To the Internet, Boy Wonder!

Good ol' J.R. is looking a bit long in the tooth

I checked Internet Movie Database, and sure enough, Dallas is coming back. That 1980s night-time soap that spawned Knots Landing (a show that I consider a guilty pleasure of my past), another night-time soap. Maybe that will come back? Is Donna Mills still hot?

Anyway, yes, Dallas is coming back, and it's not being rebooted. This won't be a show with a similar plotline and recast characters. This is a sequel of sorts. At least three of the original stars are back: Larry Hagman (J.R.), Patrick Duffy (Bobby), and Linda Gray (Sue Ellen). And this time, they've brought their kids.

Here's the trailer that came out for it in December:



It will be on TNT in the States, and I believe it starts on June 13.

I won't be watching it, but I'm not sure if I am pleased that it's coming back or horrified. The plot, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, is that the Ewing clan is a family whose riches are steeped in Texas oil. J.R. Ewing is a manipulative bastard who will do anything to get ahead. Bobby is his brother, the nice guy who very famously appeared in a shower. Sue Ellen was J.R.'s wife, though I'm sure they're divorced by now if they weren't already in the original show (knowing that would require me to care).

The new incarnation of the series will have these three characters, along with supposedly three others from the original series, along with their progeny who it turns out are just as bad as their parents.

And hilarity will ensue, I'm sure.

Oh, that and steamy sex. Can't forget that.

The series will be like most TNT series, 10-episode seasons. The first season will be this Summer and I guess we'll see from there.

Are you as pumped as I am for the return of this show? Have you been missing it like I have?

And if you match either of those, what's wrong with you?

Netflix comes to Canada!

Yes, I know this announcement is a few days old, but I've been immersing myself in it so that I can comment on it, rather than just announcing it.

As of Wednesday, Netflix is now available in Canada, but only for streaming video. They will not be offering the "mailing you DVDs that you have to mail back" option up here. And really, with the way streaming video works nowadays, how many people will really mind that?

For $7.99/month (a dollar cheaper than in the US, and even cheaper still considering the Canadian dollar still isn't quite up to par with the US dollar), you have unlimited streaming access to the entire Netflix library on your PC, iPhone/iPad, PS3, Wii and eventually Xbox 360 (I'm assuming that will be after the Fall Xbox Live Dashboard update, but that's just a guess), as well as wireless-capable televisions.

Even better is that you get a free month to try out the service to see if it's something that you're interested in. I'm not sure if that's an introductory offer because of the Canadian launch, or if it will always be that way (Zip.ca has an introductory offer as well, so it may very well be permanent), but if you're Canadian and you just *might* be interested, now is the time to try it out. That offer may not last.

Rizzoli & Isles - From Books to TV

Long-time readers of this blog know I've been a fan of Tess Gerritsen for a long time now, ever since getting the first five books of her Rizzoli & Isles series for review from Curled Up With a Good Book. The series is about Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, and they are extremely well-written. If you like the "bloody knife" genre of detective thrillers, this series is definitely for you. I took a chance asking for all five books, because I would have been obligated to review them all even if I hated the first book, The Surgeon.

Thankfully, I fell in love with them, and they just continued to get better and better. The characters are wonderful, with Rizzoli's hard edge which has been tempered somewhat by more recent events in her personal life. Isles has been having a lot of relationship issues lately, with the forbidden love she's had with a priest dragging her down even further. I love Gerritsen's mastery of her characters, making them both fascinating and bringing them all to life. Even as it's been taking me long stretches of time to read books that I've enjoyed, I still race through the next Gerritsen book when it presents itself (I still have to do a review of her latest, Ice Cold).

So imagine my pleasure when I heard that some of my favourite characters were coming to TV!

Do you watch TV online or on a TV?

Another great Mashable article states that people's TV viewing is shifting to the web.

"A survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers showed that more of us than ever before are choosing to watch TV shows on websites such as Hulu rather than on a TV. For younger folks, a full 83% said they watched some, most or all of their TV programming online."

For some reason, this is amazing to me. Maybe it's because I'm in Canada and nothing I'm interested in is available online (or, let's just say, nothing I'm interested in online is on TV. *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*). I knew watching TV shows online was becoming popular, but 83% of all people under 25 watch at least some of their TV online? That's phenomenal.

V - The ABC Series

We have our TV back! Came back yesterday morning, and we watched a lot of TV last night. Thankfully, our DVR had only lost (as in, deleted old stuff to make room for new stuff) a couple of HD concerts and the first episode of The Bridge. We decided to watch some HD episodes to clear off more space as well.

That included the first two episodes of the Spring season of V: The Series. I talked about the November 4-part miniseries (or the November "season", I guess) here. I've been itching to watch it, which is one reason I was so pissed when the TV died.

Anyway, now two episodes in and I've got to say that it's still looking great.

V - Episode 2

Saw the second episode of the new "V" series last night, and it continued the high quality of the first episode.  I was a big fan of the 80s series, but I'm finding this one is just as interesting, but in a different way.  So far, it hasn't turned into a "lizards and laser beams" show (though we have seen the lizards), but it's just as good.  Yes, the original series was cheesy looking, with lots of big hair, but it was still fun.

V - the new ABC series is actually pretty darn good!

I was torn when I heard that they were re-making "V", that kitschy SF series from the 1980s about lizard aliens who come to Earth in apparently human form, ostensibly in peace and good will but ultimately to take us for food and remove our water because they need both.

The first episode of what will be a 4-episode November launch, followed by a Spring full launch, was shown on Tuesday night.  Reports say that it was the highest rated new scripted show this season (it saddens me that they now have to add that "scripted" caveat to these things).  That's definitely good news, though it will depend on how it goes the next three weeks to see if it can retain that audience. So far, it will definitely retain me.

Powerful Images

It's amazing what images can do to make something that seems so far away much more immediate. We saw it during the Iran election (which, sadly, seems to have been ignored by too many people, and being mostly ignored by almost everybody now). But it's amazing how they can make history come alive as well.


I'm currently watching part one of the National Geographic Channel special called "Apocalypse: Second World War" and it's fascinating stuff. I'm recording the other 5 hours of this 6-part series, because I don't want to spend all afternoon watching it, but I will definitely be watching it over the next week or two. Here's the trailer for it:



What's amazing about this series, at least so far, is all of the video being used, most of which I have never seen. It's all in colour, kind of washed out so I can't tell if it's colourized or if it's just old colour footage. According to the trailer, it's restored, but I don't know if that just means "cleaned up" or if it also means they added the colour.

I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert on World War II, but I know enough that most television specials on the war don't really tell me anything new. That may very well be the case with this one as well.

But it's the video imagery that is making this arresting despite not telling me anything new (at least so far). Photography can bring the war home to you in brutal detail, but when you see the movies taken in this period, that's what's really affecting. When episode one talks about the bombing of Warsaw, and the reaction from the Allies, one of the videos is how the civilian population of Paris was preparing for what they believed to be imminent poison gas attack. They showed some of the air raid drills and various civilians practicing putting on their gas masks. But then they show a couple of children twisting their heads away or crying while the adults try to get their gas masks on them. It's very affecting.

It's just fascinating, and a reminder that no matter how much we read about a subject, especially in history, the effective use of video and photography can make what you're learning about even more absorbing. And you're more likely to keep it with you, too.

Note: Wow, I was looking for the National Geographic Channel web site that talked about this show, and just discovered that it's not on the US version of the channel!

Anyway, watching this in HD just adds to the fascination.

You Can No Longer Do That On Television

Just saw on Twitter that Canadian actor Les Lye has died. Here's the CTV article about that. Who am I talking about, you may ask?

Canadians who grew up during the 80s probably know exactly who I'm talking about, or will when I tell you his most famous role. He was the main male adult role on the Canadian kids series, You Can't Do That On Television, and we Americans watched it on Nikelodeon. It was one of my favourite shows in my early to mid-teen years. I was in lust with Christine McGrath, the sarcastic brunette lead actress on the show. But Les was always wonderful in his role as either "Barth", the extremely unhygenic cook at the diner or as the production head of the "show within a show," or many others. I always liked him.

I lost touch with the show when I moved on to high school and college, never even seeing the last year or two (including those episodes with Alannis Morrissette), but occasionally would look back (through Wikipedia or something like that), so I had no idea he was even still kicking around. But now that he's died, I'm sad.

I never kept up with him after that show, didn't follow his career at all. But I still feel like a part of my childhood I never even thought about until now has just died with him.

RIP Les.