I recently praised The Sopranos glorious return to television on this site. Well, that praise quickly became horrified disbelief on Sunday when I watched the second episode of this season. I've been trying to come up with an accurate description for it, and I think this is it; it was fucking awful. That's all I can say about. It was absolutely terrible. The folks working on the show need to go back and watch the first season again and see what it was about the show that hooked all of us. It was gangsters and the gangster lifestyle. It was truck hijacking, intimidation, violence, gang wars, and colorful over-the-top characters. It was NOT weepy women and hospitals. What I watched on Sunday was more like a bad episode of Six Feet Under. If this is the direction this season is going to take, my season pass won't make it through a few weeks.

Kim and I went to see V for Vendetta on Saturday at the Arclight. We have not been to the Arclight for some time because there just haven't been any movies that were Arclight worthy, or theater worthy for that matter. V for Vendetta was really good, though. I usually don't like movies in which I can detect a clear political motivation, but since I've read the source material for V, and it was written some 20 odd years ago, I was not bothered. Fanboys of the book have decried the movie because of its departures from the graphic novel, and Alan Moore (writer) even removed his name from the credits (the movie credit states "based on the graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd"). The departures did not bother me at all. If you haven't read the book yet, I recommend seeing the movie first. If you like the movie and want to read a longer version of it, then go pick up the graphic novel and give it a read. I think Alan Moore is a bit of a whiney bitch, and (heresy warning) I think Watchmen is overrated. I do think the movie should have been released on it's original date of November 4th because of the signifance of the date for the movie. Stupid movie executives...

posted by Travis at 4:30 PM

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Thanks to a friend who gave me his 10-day pass, I've been able to spend some time playing Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. I pitched a story idea for an article comparing DDO and World of Warcraft so I've been trying to put as much time into it as I can (which, admittedly, has not been much), but I think I have enough for the article. The first obstacle I had to overcome was playing it without thinking, "this isn't World of Warcraft and because it isn't World of Warcraft it isn't good." Like a new, young, attractive coworker, DDO's flirtatious offerings tantalize with the promise of something different and perhaps better, and to some people different is enough to be better. As is normally the case when one strays from a long-term relationship, my first time with DDO was awkward and not entirely enjoyable. I found myself thinking, "I don't like it that way, why can't you be more like WoW?" However, there are those instances where something unexpected and pleasant happens and I'm caught with one of those, "Warcraft never does that!" expressions. At the end of the day, though, I think that my heart will remain true and the DDO 10 day will end without incident. If I wasn't already involved with an MMORPG, I would pursue it, but I really don't have the time or desire to commit to two of these. I prefer the familiar surroundings of Azeroth to the dank, detailed dungeons of Stormreach.

I'm going to spend more time with DDO this weekend and start writing next week. The article will be more of a comparitive than a "x is better than y for these reasons," and will showcase what both games offer and how they appeal to different kinds of gamers.

posted by Travis at 2:17 PM

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Monday, March 13, 2006

The Sopranos premiered last night...finally. Seasons of The Sopranos are like some rare fruit that is only ripe and consumable for 13 weeks every 2 1/2 years. The problem is that sometimes the fruit is not as delectable as it was the first time you tried it. We recently watched the first season again and it is so good that it may surpass everything that has ever been on television since. Other Sopranos seasons have also been good, but there are a few out there that may even qualify as poor. The episode last night was a strong opening, but I'm a Janice hater, so her involvement in the series plot disappoints me. Also, I love Junior from the first and second season so to see him degrade into a feeble old man is sad. Regardless, we're watching all season.

We also watched the premiere of The Unit this weekend. The Unit is a military show created by Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield) and David Mamet and written by David Mamet. I'm a fan of Mamet-speak, although the show does not feature as much as I expected. It still has that Mamet rhythm, but without the obscenity to punctuate it, it isn't as much fun. I'll give the show a few more episodes of attention. I'm not sure if Mamet is going to write all of them, but even so, the characters and story are good so far.

posted by Travis at 2:55 PM

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