Sunday, March 30, 2008

McSpaced: I'm Not Loving It





British television remakes are often a hit and miss game.
You hit and get The Office. You miss and get Coupling.

There are many reasons why the Americanized Office succeeded, from the brilliance of Steve Carell to the fleshed out and super funny supporting cast. But believe me, had the remake not received blessings from creators Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant, it might not have made it past the development stage.

Coupling, on the other hand, failed harder than Britney Spears at last year's VMAs. An American remake of a British remake of Friends? That's one too many remakes for me. Thankfully, Coupling was canceled before you could say "Chip chip, cheerio!"

But my grievance isn't with the remakes of the past. Right now, my favorite show from across the pond is undergoing its own Extreme Makeover of sorts.

And all I can say is that in the case of Spaced, imitation is the most insincere form of flattery.

For those of you who don't know, Spaced follows the often surreal and pop culture packed lives of Tim and Daisy, two Londoners who pretend to be a couple so they can rent an apartment, which they believe is reserved for professional couples only.

You're probably thinking, "Wow, that sounds like a great idea for a sitcom! What's the big deal?"

And it's questions like this that make Spaced fans like me really annoyed.

Spaced is about so much more than just two people renting an apartment. It's the baby of creators, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson. Along with director Edgar Wright, they put their blood, sweat and tears into a show which stands as a specific and singular moment in their lives.

So when the remake was announced last year, I searched for one bit of information: what did Simon, Jessica and Edgar think?

And what I found was that not only weren't the trio involved in the project but they weren't even asked for their blessings beforehand. What? Are you kidding? Remake such a personal show without the people who created it? Who would do that?

Oh, that's right. McG. The man responsible for Charlie's Angels, a remake more obsessed with T&A than its cheesy 70s original.

Needless to say, I was worried. Would an American version of Spaced (titled McSpaced by fans) put the kibosh on what made the show great, the geektastic pop culture references? Would our Tim stay up all night playing Resident Evil 2, doped up on speed? Or break out into a Platoon-esque finger gun battle against a group of hoodlums? Or pay homage to other such staples as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Scooby Doo?

Doubtful.
And if they aren't going to keep the geeky sensibilities, then why remake it at all? Why not just take the basic concept and run with it? Two people living in an apartment. Period. Why call it Spaced if you're just going to squeeze out everything that made it what it was, including the creators?

And what really pisses me off is that McG and company claim to be such big fans of the show. Well, as a big fan myself, I call their claims bullshit. Because if they really were big fans (and thus fans of Simon, Jessica and Edgar), they wouldn't have been so shady about developing the remake. They would have picked up the phone and called them. Maybe they thought phone lines didn't cross the big ole Atlantic Ocean. Only a thought that stupid could keep them from doing something so simple.

Oh, and don't get me started on the media. They are just as bad. In everything I read about the remake, it was all about Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Not only did the articles imply that they were actually involved, but they totally ignored Jessica Stevenson. Yes, Simon and Edgar are more familiar to American audiences but it's unfair to leave out a third of the creative force behind the show. It just proves that neither the media nor those behind the remake really have the respect for the original that they claim.

I could easily go on (OMG did you see who they cast as Tim and Daisy? Blasphemy!) but I'll put the issue of McSpaced to bed for now.

And then, while it's sleeping, I'll sneak up real quiet and hack it to death with an ax.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Geek Chic





Believe it or not, I'm a geek.
Please, hide your surprise. Pick up your jaw from the floor. My last post should have made this painfully clear to you. And if you're reading this right now, odds are you're one, too.

But let's talk about me and how I fell into geekdom.

I've always considered myself to be an obsessive personality. When I love something, I just don't love it. I drink it up and eat it for breakfast. Case in point: NSYNC circa 2000. My collection of CDs, merchandise, memorabilia, and posters would certainly astound you. But that obsession was more teenybopper hysteria than geekiness.

I'd have to say that I first dipped my toe into the geek pool in the summer of 2003. The summer before the final Lord of the Rings movie came out. I immersed myself into the world of Middle Earth and there was no turning back. I read the books, purchased the DVDs, listened to the commentaries and even went to an exhibit on the movies in Boston at the Museum of Science. When Return of the King came out, it didn't matter that I was deathly ill and coughing up a lung. Oh no. I was at the theater at 10am sharp. And I went back to the theater another four times before the movie bowed out of theaters.

As things quieted down on the Lord of the Rings front, a whole other storm was brewing on the Hawaiian islands. There, a new show was being filmed. A show that just happened to star my favorite hobbit as a drug addicted rock star.

And that, my friends, is how I came to know and love Lost.
You know, what they say is true. One thing does lead to another.

And a similar thing is happening now: I read the books, buy the DVDs, listen to the podcasts by show runners Damon and Carlton, and debate and theorize after each episode with my partners in crime, my fellow Lost fans.

At the same time, my geeky tendencies led me to the stronghold of geekdom: Harry Potter. I was a bit late to the wizarding party, it's true, but that didn't stop me from reading all the available books in the summer of 2004. And I joined right in with the other muggles on two hot and sticky summer days in 2005 and 2007 to welcome the release of the last two books. While I never stood in line at midnight to get my copy, I did wait with bated breath for the mailman to arrive with my package , "do not open until July 21, 2007!" written all over it. I devoured that book in two days.

Told you I was geeky.

And it doesn't end there. In two weeks time, British television staple Doctor Who is back. Everyone's favorite time traveler (well, besides Desmond Hume) is once again saving the world and destroying aliens one Dalek at a time.

If I didn't lose you at time travel and Daleks, then you truly are a geek! Congratulations!

Let's reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, watch episodes of Lost where the the craziest thing was a hatch in the ground, and plan our trip to New Zealand.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Fantastic Four





What happens when an anthropologist, a drunk, a head case and a ghostbuster crash-land on a not so deserted island?

No, this isn't the premise of a so-bad-it's-good reality show where producers throw together a motley crew of characters and see what happens next. And neither is it some wacky remake of the Breakfast Club where high school is swapped for sandy beaches and leafy jungles and the biggest enemy isn't a principal in Barry Manilow's clothing but a monster shrouded in smoke.

No, this is what happened in the second episode of Lost's mindbending oh-my-God inducing fourth season.

And that was just the start of it.
But a lack of time and brain cells leaves me unable to untwist and lay flat to dry for you the recent clues to the island's mysteries. All I can say is this: don't think of time as a straight line, but as a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. Or something like that.

I can, however, tell you that Charlotte (the anthropologist), Frank (the drunk), Daniel (the head case) and Miles (the ghostbuster) are some of the most compelling yet puzzling characters ever to be introduced on the show.

What makes them interesting, you ask?
Well, they were assembled by a dodgy man in a suit named Matthew Abaddon to stage some sort of intervention (read: hostile takeover) of head Other Ben Linus.

Add to that their knowledge of the survival of the passengers of Flight 815, despite the fact that to the outside world they are dead at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Figure in their leader Naomi, who, after being knifed by the island's It Boy John Locke, used her last breath to covertly tell her teammates that they weren't in Kansas anymore.

But what's most important is what we know about the characters themselves:

On an archeological dig in the desert, Charlotte finds the skeleton of a polar bear
curiously wearing a Dharma Initiative collar.



Frank, now a spitting image of a drunken Nick Nolte, was once a pilot for Oceanic Airlines and was supposed to be behind the wheel of Flight 815.



Miles uses his six sense to finagle money from dead people. And it's not only on the dead he works his magic. Oh no. He's also blackmailing a very alive Ben Linus out of 3.2 million dollars.



But my favorite of the bunch is bumbling physicist Daniel,who, after a series of experiments involving electromagnetism and a rat named Eloise, might just possess the answer to that old age question: is time travel possible?



Whatever the final answer might be, I know these new characters, along with the original group of island misfits, will make the crazy journey that is Lost worthwhile.