John Hamburg/ Meetup/ Metro writers

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:



Jan. 2 John Hamburg: Here’s a good article from the Globe and Mail.  It was from Nov. 15, 2010.  It’s where they interview John Hamburg who discusses his comedy movies.

"The best comedic actors don't play it like they're in a comedy," New York screenwriter and director John Hamburg says. "They play it as if they're in a drama. And the more seriously they take it, the funnier they are."

In that esteemed company, the 40-year-old Hamburg puts Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Robert De Niro - all of whom he has worked with in a string of successful comedies, including Zoolander, I Love You, Man and the Focker films ( Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers, in theatres next month).

In Toronto on Monday night to take part in a master class that is part of the Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab (a collaboration of the Canadian Film Centre and Just for Laughs), Hamburg says the secret to great comedy is simple: hard work. And the best talent - like those above - are pros who always show up with their game face.

Taxi Driver , Raging Bull, The Godfather. Those are the types of roles that come to mind when you hear Robert De Niro. Why was he cast in Meet the Parents as the sour, comedic foil to Stiller's Gaylord Focker?
 
Because he plays comedy dead straight. You're not going to see Robert perform a Saturday-night comedy club, but he understands precisely where the comedy lies in the scenes.

And why Streisand as the ideal pair to Hoffman's Bernie Focker?
 
Dustin just has this impulsive, childlike enthusiasm [in real life]that was perfect for the role. And he's just an energetic now as he was back when he did The Graduate. He's like a big kid. Barbra is a brilliant woman, who didn't get to be Barbra Streisand just because she has a beautiful voice. I remember getting a call from her after I'd put a word back into the script. She phoned and said, "Why did you put that back in?" You can't get anything past her. That directness works with Dustin's puppy-dog-like character.

How much improvisation from the actors ends up on the screen that wasn't in your script?
 
Rudd, Segel and Stiller are brilliant improvisers and I always encourage them to do improv. In I Love You, Man, Paul came up with the line "I slap the bass big time," using a Jamaican accent. It's the line that defines the film's entire sensibility.

Film critics tend to pooh-pooh sequels for falling short of the original. How did you keep Focker 2 and 3 fresh?
 
Had I not been involved in the making of these movies, I'd probably be cynical too. But you can't approach it like you're cashing in on something. You have to view it as a rare opportunity to follow these characters over 10 years. It's like a family you're watching develop and grow up. And the dynamics have to change. This time around, Jack Byrnes (De Niro) is considering his mortality and Greg (Gaylord) Foster (Stiller) is grappling with obligations to a young family. Those are the things we're exploring. And we push ourselves, go back to the previous movies, ditch devices we now think are boring.

How much of your life is reflected in your comedies?
 
I use a lot. In Meet the Parents, I tapped into that uncomfortable feeling we all have the first time you meet your girlfriend's folks - although I'm fortunate my father-in-law is much nicer than Jack. Even the contrast between the Jewish and non-Jewish culture. My wife is not Jewish.

Why are you in Toronto mentoring comedy writers and directors?
 
It's fun to meet people who are interested in the same things I'm interested in. Talking to new groups of people inspires me to think about my own work and future movies. So it might seem like networking, but it's selfish at the same time. It's all about the exchange of ideas. Having all this stuff in the air makes us all better filmmakers.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/the-monday-qa-what-makes-comedic-actors-funny/article1461435/

Jan. 8 Meetup: I joined the Edmonton Screenwriter’s Group.  Today I got a script to read from one of the members.  I read one really good script, and a good outline from two of the members.  The one I read today seemed more like a rough draft.

I emailed my notes to him and mentioned about the dialogue was too expository, and there were lots of punctuation marks missing.  The story was too unbelievable for me.  I did send comments on how to make it believable.  I hoped my notes helped him.

Jan. 10 Metro writers: I have some comments on these Metro writers.  I’ve been reading Metro starting Aug. 2013 because 24 news closed down in Edmonton.  I’ve been reading a lot of John Mazerolle columns and I will say: They’re not that good. I feel like he’s trying too hard to be funny.

Paul Sullivan "Just Sayin'" articles are news.  They’re average.

Jessica Napier "She says" columns are opinions, not really news.  They’re not really good.

Jan. 12 Superheroes and surveillance: “Who are the Masked Men?” by Sarah Boesveld in the National Post on Jun. 6, 2011.  I can’t copy and paste the article, but it’s short with these cool and fun pictures of comic book heroes.

It mentions Batman, Watchmen, X-Men, Iron Man, and Scott Pilgrim.

“All superhero movies, although engaging with the ethical dilemmas of vigilantism and by extension surveillance, in the end…actively promote the need for more surveillance.” (–Evangelos Tziallas, a “University of Concordia doctoral candidate who presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. Last week)

“Batman comes to represent the needs of stability, capitalism and hierarchy.   Batman simply affirms the upper-class’s ordained right to rule and snuff out those who oppose them or want to rattle the system for change.”

Kieron Gillen, writer of Uncanny X-Men: “In terms of the films specifically, I’d say the axis is between those who believe the system can be reformed (Xavier) and those who don’t (Magneto), which makes it a debate about the correct mode of progressive politics rather than a meek capitulation to the powers that be.  It’s also about dudes who can fire zap-rays out of their eyes.”

Tziallas on Iron Man: “The first film promoted weapons manufacturing, so long as the weapons stay in the hands of smart, rich, white, straight American men who have license to destroy when they feel it is necessary for the ‘greater good.’”

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/06/06/superheroes-surveillance-who-are-these-masked-men-and-what-do-they-represent/

Intelligence pilot: I didn’t watch this new show, but I was reminded of it when I read the above about Iron Man and who weapons should belong to.  On imdb.com, here’s the pilot summary:

“The head of the U.S. Cyber Command, Lillian Strand, hires Secret Service agent Riley Neal to protect their greatest asset - agent Gabriel Vaughn who has has a cyber chip implanted in his brain which connects him to the Internet and various data banks. They are quickly on the job when the creator of Gabriel's implant, Dr. Shenandoah Cassidy, is kidnapped by Chinese agents. Cassidy was recently let go by Cyber Command and it seems he had a new and improved version the chip which the Chinese have him implant into one of their own agents.”

That’s a pretty common storyline, about how one character shouldn’t have this power or powerful item because it will be used for good or evil.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2693776/

Hostages

This is on my blog www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Jan. 10 Hostages: I saw the pilot of this TV show on Sept. 24, 2013 on ctv.ca.  The show is about a surgeon named Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette from TV show United States of Tara) and she has to perform surgery on the President of the USA.  She and her family are being held hostage by Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott).  Duncan wants her to kill the President on the surgery table or he will kill her and her family.

I then see that there is the season finale in Jan. after 15 episodes.  I was like: “What?  Why now?”  It turns out it was supposed to be a mini-series.

Here’s some more info:

http://www.examiner.com/article/hostages-big-season-finale-was-this-show-renewed-or-canceled

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2647258/

Here’s the pilot:

Cut to night time.  The Sanders family of Ellen, her husband Brian (Tate Donovan from The OC), teen daughter Morgan (Quinn Shephard), and teen son Jake (Mateus Ward) are sitting and watching TV.  4 masked gunmen surround them. 

Cut to 12 hrs earlier.

Ellen is the surgeon and she is talking at a press conference.  She is operating on the President.

In Washington:  There is a hostage negotiation of a bank robbery.

FBI Duncan Carlisle is saying: Release a dozen hostages and we’ll get the safe transport.

A Masked Man and a Business man comes out.

Duncan shoots the Business man.

The Masked Man has mouth taped.

Duncan: I can tell the business guy wasn’t really a business guy because of his shoes.

A maintenance guy walks past Ellen.

Ellen enters her office and sees a picture frame is missing.  There is a camera watching her.  Ellen calls her husband Brian.

There are two people watching the Sanders house.

Duncan visits his wife in a coma.

The two people are setting cameras in the house.

Brian is coaching lacrosse and confronts the team.

Brian: I found money.

His son Jake is there.

Jake: It’s for beer and fake IDs.

Duncan has a 10 yr old daughter.  The Grandpa comes to take care of her.

Brian and Jake tell Ellen about buying beer.

Teen daughter Morgan is crying.  I thought about The Simpsons where Bart and Lisa are watching the Smashing Pumpkins perform.

Bart: Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Morgan Skypes with her friend Amelia and Amelia says: “You have to tell him.”  She leaves the house.

Jake has a secret cell phone and calls his friend: “Nico is going to be so mad that $1200 is missing.”

Sandrine Renault (Sandrine Holt) is one of the hostage takers.  She is following Morgan who goes to meet her boyfriend.  Her boyfriend wants to meet her parents and Morgan says no and leaves.

Kramer (Rhys Coiro) grabs Jake who’s outside.

Morgan is holding a pregnancy test that explains why she was crying.

The hostage takers bring all the family members in the living room like in the beginning of the episode.  They take off their masks.

Morgan: They showed their face.  They’re going to kill us.

Duncan takes Ellen upstairs.

Duncan: You are going to operate on the President tomorrow, and he will during surgery.  If you don’t kill him, we will kill your family.

The family eats dinner as Duncan, Kramer, Archer (Billy Brown), and Sandrine watch them.  They drill the windows and learn that someone tripped the silent alarm.  The phone rings and Ellen picks up.

Security system woman: A security guy is coming, it’s protocol.

Security guy comes and delivers Ellen an envelope.

Ellen recognizes him as Maintenance guy who was in her office.

Duncan hits Brian.

Duncan: You are not the husband you pretend to be.

He shows tablet of Brian with another woman.

Duncan talks to Ellen:

Duncan: Inject this into the President, within 5 min. he’ll die.

He puts vial in lipstick.

Duncan: Don’t think of killing the President, think of saving your family.

Kramer is with Jake.

Kramer knows about the secret phone and drug dealer so he texts about “family emergency.”

Jake: Why did you kill my dog?

Kramer takes him downstairs and the dog is alive.

Duncan: You have to get them to fear us, to control them.

Duncan calls his dad, the Grandpa who is taking care of Duncan’s daughter.  Duncan then talks to the President’s assistant.

The next day.  Morgan is in the washroom and she’s throwing up.

 Duncan is outside and he kicks the door open when she doesn’t answer. 

Ellen is worried and runs up the stairs.

Duncan sees the pregnancy test.

Morgan: Don’t tell.

Duncan: I won’t.

Ellen asks if Morgan is okay, and Morgan says she is sick.

Brian tells Ellen to kill the President because the hostage takers threatened to expose his infidelity.

Ellen: I’m the one who has to live with it.

The TV news is on: “The surgery has been postponed for 2 weeks because the President has been given a blood federer.”  I’m not quite sure what she said, but the surgery is postponed.

My opinion: I thought the pilot was good, but I didn’t connect with it.  I didn’t watch it after the pilot.  Good story and acting.  I didn’t know it was a mini-series.  It was never advertised on CTV that way.

Comparisons:

The good guy in mask with the mouth taped: It has been done on the TV show CSI: NY.

A politician is going into surgery, and a medical professional in the surgery room has to kill the politician: It was done on ep of The Listener called “Fatal Vision.”

Jonathan Goldstein/ Veronica Mars movie/ Alex Rider

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Jan. 2: Here's an article by Jonathan Goldstein in the National Post:

My own worst critic isn’t me — it's this woman who came to my reading

6:00 p.m.
I’m giving a reading at the public library this evening, but before it begins, I meet up with a group of teens. They publish a literary journal out of the library and are an inquisitive bunch.
“How much money do you make?” a teenage girl asks.
When I was a kid, I was afraid to even talk to adults. I once jumped from a moving tram car because I was too shy to ask the driver to stop. And these kids won’t be satisfied until they see my tax returns.

“Not enough to get rich,” I say, “but enough to eat regular meals.”
 “What was your big break?”
“I guess I’m still waiting for that. But I’ve gotten by on a few smaller breaks.”
“How’d you know you wanted to be a writer?”
“It was a process of elimination,” I say. “I wasn’t good at much else. And for years I didn’t even get any positive feedback. It was just that I couldn’t stop. Charles Bukowski compared his process to a spider with no choice but to spin webs. That’s how I felt, like I needed to do it whether I got paid or not.”
“How do you deal with someone not liking you?” a young man in a pork pie hat asks.
“I guess I try to enjoy it,” I say. “Enjoy that my existence upsets them. There can be great strength in that.”

7:45 p.m.

After the reading, there are more questions. This time from adults.
“Is it hard to share dark truths about yourself,” someone asks.
“I don’t think my truths are so dark,” I say. “Sure, I uncrate poisonous memories from the basement of my mind, but what the reader fails to grasp is that the elevator goes down to a sub-basement — a ‘B2,’ if you will. And that’s where I keep the Special Goldstein Reserves, those darker vintages only to be uncorked during death-bed confessionals.”

8:10 p.m.

Walking off the stage, a woman approaches wanting to know who the person on my poster is.
“That was me,” I say apologetically. “When I had hair. I guess I should update my publicity photo.”
“Yes,” she says. “You used to look good.”
It is at this point that a smarter man would just walk away. But when I am handed a shovel, not only do I willingly dig my own grave, but I really put my back into it. And so:
“Don’t I look good now?” I ask.

“You look wise,” the woman says. That she says it with a degree of gentleness makes it all the more hurtful.
We often think of ourselves as our own worst critics. But then one day we meet someone who makes us realize this is not at all the case. No, there are people out there who see us from unflattering vantage points we can only dream of.

Thank you, casually cruel lady, for unburdening me of the weight of my own perceived masochism. Thank you, too, for forcing me to live out my own advice. And so, with gritted teeth, I try to imagine how much I might upset this woman and I try, too, to enjoy it.

—Jonathan Goldstein is the host of WireTap on CBC Radio One, airing Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Thursday at 11:30 p.m.  Follow him on Twitter @J_Goldstein.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/11/17/my-week-my-own-worst-critic-isnt-me-its-this-woman-who-came-to-my-reading/

Jan. 3: I unintentionally seemed to ignite my passion for writing a little bit, with old TV shows and movies.

Veronica Mars movie: I was on Facebook and I see Ashley put up the trailer to this movie.  I love this show and have all 3 seasons on DVD.  I see the trailer, and it looks really good.  It seems that Veronica is now a NYC lawyer and she finds out her ex-boyfriend Logan may have murdered his girlfriend.  Veronica comes and helps him.

It looks like all the characters are back.  I was kind of excited and happy to see the trailer.  When I heard they were going to make a movie, I was like: “Okay.  We’ll see if it actually gets produced.”
Even if you’re not a fan of the show and never seen it, I do recommend you watch the show.  It does have a mass appeal because it’s good writing and mysteries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq1R93UMqlk

I clicked on Percy Daggs III, who played Veronica’s friend Wallace on the show.  He seemed really happy and grateful that the movie is coming out.  That’s nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-11PlBvUkc4

Alex Rider: Does anyone remember the 2006 movie called Alex Rider: Stormbreaker?  The books are by Anthony Horowitz and I have read the first six of them back in 2005-2006.  It stars Alex Pettyfer, and he was in I am Number Four and In Time.

The books are really good about a 14 yr old boy named Alex who is recruited into being a spy for MI6.  However, the movie wasn’t really good.  I was 21 when I saw the movie and I was really excited about it.  When I did some checking about it on the internet, I see that Horowitz also wrote the movie.

I also see there were some changes in it like how Alex’s love interest Sabina is in it.  She wasn’t in it until the later books.  I read that Alex’s housekeeper Jack is going to get into a fight scene with Nadia.  That wasn’t in the book either.  

It was on TV last night, so I decided to have it on in the background as I’m on the computer.  I will only watch it for the action scenes.

I went to Wikipedia, and it says:

“Hopes and expectations for a box office-busting franchise were so high that Horowitz was commissioned to start writing the screenplay for the adaption of the second novel, Point Blanc, even before Stormbreaker was released. Pettyfer was signed to play Alex Rider in all the sequels and Horowitz gave several interviews where he confidently stated that Alex Rider would become the next iconic movie character. However the film's poor box office performance meant that plans for a franchise were dropped. The film was a rather embarrassing failure for Horowitz, who later admitted the film was a "mistake".

In an interview in 2009, Horowitz disclosed that there are no plans for any more Alex Rider films as the books "do not translate well to the big screen" and had scrapped the idea to make Point Blanc.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormbreaker_%28film%29
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457495/

I feel like kids and people who are up to 15 yrs old would like this movie.

Voyage Media/ Nat Mundel

Jan. 3, 2014: I subscribe to Voyage Media and Nat Mundel emails me.  This subscription was probably around 2012.  Yeah, it’s long, so it’s totally fine if you skim through all of Nat’s email and go straight to my opinion that’s in bold.

Me: I then sent an email telling him how I have two blogs and I have been trying to get The Vertex Fighter produced for the last 5 years.

Me: So basically, this guy was selling this private coaching group session.  He is making money off me.  I know it’s not a scam, but I’m not willing to spend money on this.  After I read this, it doesn’t ignite my passion to get my script produced.

Jul. 11, 2018: I just got an email from him and he said I didn't have permission to repost it on my blog and to remove it. So I did.

I will keep my comments and the blog readers comments on this:

4 comments:

1. 
   AnonymousFebruary 9, 2016 at 4:07 PM

   Learn what a scam is. This heavy marketing that you didn't ask for has alarms all over it. Easy payments! Of ONLY hundreds of dollars - EACH MONTH.

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   Home TradersJune 27, 2016 at 8:41 AM

   Run away from them...actually a movie is produced based on a bestseller, not a recently written one or by an author nobody knows about. Scam is written all over it.

   ReplyDelete
3. 
   delia ridgwayMay 8, 2018 at 3:51 AM

   Thank you for this...

   ReplyDelete
4. 
   Rubi HerreraJune 4, 2018 at 5:57 PM

   I actually paid these people for a pilot that I had. I paid for an initial consultation that cost me 600.00. What I got - I had a phone consultaton with Nat and had the opportunity to pitch my pilot to a producer. It was all good until Nat started to tell me if I wanted to blah blah blah blah it was going to cost me $$$$$$$, which of course I said thank you and I'll think about it (in my head I was like are you F*CKING kidding me). That was the end of me and them. I would not recommend going through the process. Too expensive for struggling writers.

   ReplyDelete

A whimsical coming of age tale from New Zealand

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:
Jan. 1 Boy: Here is the movie review to Boy.

A whimsical coming of age tale from New Zealand

Jay Stone, Postmedia News

Published: Friday, May 04 2012

REVIEW
Boy Rating 3 1/2
Starring: James Rolleston, Taika Waititi, and Te Aho Eketone-Whitu
Directed by: Taika Waititi
Classification: 14A, coarse language, substance abuse
Theatre: Metro at the Garneau, Fri., Thu. 7; Sat. 1, 9; Sun. 3: 30, 9; Tue. 9

Boy is the nom-de-whimsy of a Maori boy of about 11 who lives, with maximum enthusiasm, on a picturesquely unadorned bay in New Zealand with his younger brother, several cousins and his grandmother.
It's 1984, and in the surreal coming-of-age film Boy, we learn just about everything we need to know about him in the opening shot, as Boy addresses us during the Who Am I? class at his school: His favourite person is Michael Jackson. His father, who is absent, is a master carver, deepsea diver and captain of the rugby team. (Translation: He's in jail.) He has a crush on a tall girl named Chardonnay ("look at me," he urges silently). His mother is dead. His confidante is his pet goat. His favourite subjects are art, social studies and Michael Jackson.

Boy was written and directed by Taika Waititi, who also costars as the father, a reprobate who returns to visit his family and then to disillusion them. Like Waititi's previous film, the romance Eagle vs. Shark, it is charming and surreal, although it calms down eventually into a coming-of-age story that settles for being quirky and predictable. It is nonetheless charming for that.

It stars a young newcom-r named James Rolleston, ho gives Boy an infectious optimism and perhaps the most winning smile in cinema. Boy is based on Waititi's own upbringing - it was filmed on Waihau Bay, where he lived - and it reflects a sort of genial poverty that doesn't fall into bitterness. There are undercurrents of disenfranchisement in Boy, but, unlike, say, the excoriating Maori drama Once Were Warriors, it treats them as fond comedy rather than violent desperation.

Enlivened with the occasional animated children's drawing, Boy establishes a precise culture where, for instance, a teacher can ask his class, "Who knows what disease this sheep has?"
When another teacher tells Boy he has "potential," he is struck by the idea.
"What does that word mean?" he asks. "Potential."
"It's 3: 30, man" says the teacher, heading out the door. "I'm off duty."

Things change when Boy's father Alamein shows up with two dopey henchmen. They're wearing gang colours and call themselves the Crazy Horses East Coast, but they turn out to be nothing much more than comical sidekicks. Alamein parades around in leathers and an army helmet, and decides he wants to be known as Shogun, after the James Cavell novel. He's full of self-delusion and camaraderie - as well as stories about his new favourite movie, E.T. - and Boy gazes at him with happy hero worship.

The movie settles into a sort of rambling inevitability, as Boy and his brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu, another scene-stealer) watch their father stumble through his extended adolescence.
He has buried some money in a field, but he can't remember quite where ("It's a certain number of steps from the post. I just can't remember the numbers of steps. Or the post"), and much of Boy is taken up with people digging random holes in a field, or rather, Boy digging holes, while his dad and the other Crazy Horses smoke marijuana and watch.

Boy is a very likable movie, but it's slight, even by the off the-cuff standards of the New Zealand culture it depicts. We know where it's heading: The charm is in how it gets there, and in the lovely accents it takes on (a marijuana smoker is a "dopeheed"). It's a unique voice, and a unique vision. Like Boy, Taika Waititi has potential.

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=2d4b0606-3d7d-4f1f-bce1-f0608144d3eb

Dads: I watched the sitcom Dads when it came out.  It’s from Family Guy producers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.  You can really see the similar humor. 
 
It starts off with Eli (Seth Green) and Warner (Giovanni Ribisi) working at Ghost Child where they create video games.  The opening credits shows pictures of dad with their sons, so it’s sentimental.
Warner has a wife Camilla (Vanessa Lachey) and 2 kids.  Eli is single and lives in a penthouse.  Veronica (Brenda Song) is an Asian woman.  I read an article about the show and she said when guys hit on her, she says “No English.”

Eli has a Mexican maid Edna (Tonita Castro), which is so Family Guy.  Veronica also dressed up like a school girl to woo the Chinese investors.  When she came out looking like that, the audience says: “Whoo.”  She did say: “I’m now a VP and I’m taking next week off.”  Yeah, well if you’re going above and beyond for your job by dressing like that, then you should be rewarded with a week off.

The above is my left-brain thinking about work.  Now here is my left-brain thinking about investing. 
I did like this one part.  Warner’s dad Crawford (Martin Mull) and Eli’s dad David (Peter Reigart) both come into town to visit their sons.  The dads go to meet each other for lunch.  

Crawford: That’s the thing with investment managers.  Giving money to a guy in a suit and tie to make more money with it.  If he doesn’t, then I understand.

I was reading Rahmit Sethi’s book I Will Teach You to be Rich, and Sethi says we should do our own investing instead of getting an investment manager.

The meeting with the Chinese investors.  There is the “Kill Hitler 2” video game.  I can totally see that on Family Guy.  Crawford shows up at the meeting and Warner tries to stop him.  Crawford says: “You can’t trust the Chinese.  That’s why Shanghai is a verb.”  They lose the deal.

Eli’s dad David is at the Eli’s birthday party.

David: I wouldn’t have ruined it if I had the correct pronunciation of Shiite.

My little brother was watching it with me and he laughed.

Later we learn that David didn’t make a few payments and lost his condo.  Eli says: “You could have asked me to loan the money.”  David ends up moving in with Eli.  The show kind of redeems itself here.
The ending is Veronica comes in: “The translator sent me a pic of his penis, and I threatened to put it up online unless he convinced the Chinese investors on the deal.”

They got the deal.

My opinion: I will give points for ethnic diversity on the show.  They do have big names on this show.  Now onto the actual writing: I didn’t really like it.  I’m not into sitcoms, and I’m kind of eh with Family Guy.  I only watch that show here and there, and there are only one or two jokes that are actually good.

I didn’t watch it after the pilot.  If you like Family Guy and the actors on the show, then you might enjoy it.

Marvel Agents of SHIELD

This is on my www.badcb.blogspot.ca: 

Dec. 14 Marvel Agents of SHIELD: On Sept. 24, 2013, I saw the pilot to this show.  This show is created by Buffy creator Joss Whedon and his brother Jed Whedon.  Also Maurissa Tancharoen co-created it and she is married to Jed Whedon.

J. August Richards plays Mike Peterson.  He saves a woman from a building that is exploded.  He is well- known as playing Gunn on Whedon’s TV show Angel.  He takes his son with him after he saves her.

Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) takes glass from guy at a restaurant.  He uses the finger print to open a safe.  A hot woman is in the hotel room and sees him.  She doesn’t care.  Ward then gets word that there are guys coming after him.  He fights them off.  I like fight scenes.  He then grabs a rope from a helicopter on the roof and flies away.

Colbie Smulders (How I Met your Mother) is Agent Maria Hill.  They discuss this spin-off from the movie The Avengers.

Hill: The battle of NY was best.

They talk about super humans.

Mike is walking on street and Skye (Chloe Bennet) kind of follows him.  She looks Asian.  I see that she is half- Asian and half-white imdb.

The agents Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division see the

video of a Mike in a hood saving the woman from a building.

Skye goes up to Mike.

Skye: You can’t even find a job.  There are guys named SHIELD who will find you.

I’m really good at  computers.

Mike leaves and Skye gets his ID.

Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) creates the team.  He goes to Asian woman Melinda (Ming

-Na Wen) to join.

Melinda: I don’t want to be in the field.

Coulson: You will drive the bus.

Cut to the plane which is what Melinda will be driving.

Dec. 31: Cut to the plane.  A British guy Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge) are arguing.  The plane is really nice.  That is so Joss Whedon to have British characters on his show.

Skye is in a van talking about how “You can’t find us.”  Coulson opens the van and they put a bag over her head.  Ward and Coulson interrogate Skye.

Melinda, Fitz and Simmons got to the building that blew up to investigate.

Coulson: I want to contain Mike.  Some want to dissect him.

Mike talks to a doctor: The experiment works.  I can’t go back to the factory because I can’t get worker’s comp. 

Back to the interrogation.

Skye: I found Centipede?

Ward: Centipede?

Cut to the investigation.  Fitz uses little computers to fly around the building and Melinda finds a camera. 

In the interrogation it looks like Coulson is going to inject Skye with truth serum, but then he puts it into Ward instead.  That is so unexpected and funny.  That’s Joss Whedon’s style.  It’s reversal of situation as Skye interviews Ward and asks: “Have you ever killed anyone before?”  Ward says: “Yes, a few.”

Cut to Mike at the factory and he is asking for his job back.  He says he’s stronger and shows his strength by pushing this huge machine.  Mike gets angry and throws boss into these pipes.

Coulson finds out about Mike.

Mike visits the woman at the hospital that he saved.

Woman: You’re juiced Mike.  You’re out of your mind.  Just like the last guy.  You exposed us.

Mike jumps out of the building.

That’s a good surprise.  You thought Mike was helping a woman, but she was part of the experiment. 

There is a video/ hologram of a man confronting a scientist.  There is this centipede on his arm.  It’s used for super soldiers.  

Mike approaches Melinda and Skye.  He throws Melinda out of the way.  He brings his kid Ace and gets Skye to drive them in the van.

Simmons: Mike is a bomb. 

Mike is glowing.

Fitz and Simmons: He will detonate in a few hours.  He would have to be killed.

Coulson: Think of something else, where a kid doesn’t lose his father.

The stakes are raised.

Skye deletes Mike’s files from the SHIELD.

Fitz and Simmons sees the security breach and it leads to Skye and Mike’s location.  They find the van at the train station.  Skye kicks a gang member in the crotch to create a distraction.

Skye: You’re right, he is a little bitch.

The gang members get angry and fight Mike.  Mike throws them around.  The Experiment people come and shoot at him.  The “Cop” who is really part of the Experiment come and shoots at Mike.  Melinda knocks out the Cop.  Coulson does a hostage negotiation talk to Mike.

Mike: You took my wife, house, and my job.  You told us if we work hard, we’ll be fine.

Fitz: You’re right Mike.  It matters who you are. 

A shot at Mike in the head.  He falls down.  Mike is blue.  Simmons checks him.

Simmons: Subject is in stable condition.

They drop off Mike at a nice house.

Coulson asks Skye: Do you want to join us?

Skye says yes.  The old car they’re sitting in turns into a flying car.

My opinion: I thought it was average.  I love Joss Whedon’s work on Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse.  I will admit I didn’t really like his TV show Firefly because Fox cancelled one of my favorite TV shows Dark Angel to replace it with Firefly.  Also when I watched a few Firefly episodes, I thought it was average.  I did watch the Firefly movie Serenity and that was good.  I can’t love everything by Joss Whedon.

After I saw the pilot, I didn’t watch any more of it.  I have to get hooked after one episode.  I’m sure a lot of you guys are like: “I like to watch a few episodes before I decide if I want to keep watching this show.”

The Tomorrow People: After I emailed my review of this show, my friend Sherry told me she saw the original British show before.  I was like: “What?  This show is a remake?”  I then did some research and I see that it is a remake:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tomorrow_People

Jan. 1 Avalanche Sharks: I read about this Syfy TV movie in the newspaper so I checked out the trailer.  It looks like sharks are swimming in a snowy mountain and you can see their fins in the snow as they bite people.  Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sotQoOngYno