syfy channel

Syfy Renews ‘Destination Truth’

by on May 19, 2011

in Entertainment, television

Destination Truth on Syfy (news)

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If you’re a lover of all things Destination Truth on the Syfy channel, you are in luck!  (As if you’d be surprised!)  Syfy channel has ordered the fifth season of the traveling inquisitive show, starring Josh Gates.

Last year the Destination Truth gang was all over the place, from Antarctica to a live telecast in Ireland.  And this year, well, this year the show has already started filming!

Now I wasn’t counting last year, but they had fourteen episodes last season.  This season, the press release from the Syfy channel denotes this confusing, yet exact phrase:

“Season five of the globetrotting investigative reality series has commenced production on seven episodes, slated to premiere on Syfy in early 2012.“

Only seven?  Or are they meaning they’re slated right now for producing those first seven, then getting on with another seven?

If they’ve only ordered seven eps, this can’t be a good sign for future seasons!

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NBC’s 2011/2012 TV Fall Lineup ['Chuck' 'SVU,' Why no 'Wonder Woman']

by on May 15, 2011

in Entertainment, television

NBC Universal logoNBC beat the other networks to the punch with their new 2011/2012 TV season lineup schedule announcement, TV Line has revealed.

They’ve (TV Line) also spent some quality time chatting about a few issues that folks might have had questions about, most notably, Chuck, Wonder Woman being dropped, and changes that might be taking place on Law & Order: SVU in the upcoming 2011/2012 TV season.

The notable changes:

Chuck

Chuck is moving to Fridays for its fifth season.  And this is slated to be their final season, with 13 ordered episodes.  But because they are headed into the fifth season, knowing it’s their last, they can approach the story line properly and leave the fans with closure.  (I’m thinking they’ve learned from the lumps and bruises they’ve taken when they cancelled shows like Vegas in mid-cliff-hanger and most recently, Stargate Universe on Syfy channel.)

There won’t be any more episodes ordered, unless, as NBC president Greenblatt said, they suddenly find themselves with 10 million viewers on Friday night, then they’d order more.  (Hint, hint… tell everyone you know fans!)

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30 Rock will show up mid-season, along with Celebrity Apprentice & The Voice.

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On NBC NOT picking up Wonder Woman

It was said by NBC President Bob Greenblatt that they needed to have the right take on Wonder Woman, in this genre, and he did not feel that the pilot did that.  Though he admitted that he wasn’t the best audience for the genre, in so making that decision.

A Cinema Static Suggestion on Wonder Woman:

Despite not picking up the series, I think they should set up the pilot as a stand-alone movie and air it… even if they shuttle it over to the Syfy channel.  It could not be any worse than some of the frighteningly poor quality knock-offs they run on Syfy and would probably make a great Saturday Night Original Movie.

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‘Warehouse 13′ H.G. Wells Spin-off In The Planning Stages

by on May 15, 2011

in Entertainment, television

First up, a reminder:  Warehouse 13 returns to the Syfy channel on July 11th.

Now,

It would seem that I was not alone in my appreciating the character of H.G. Wells played by Jaime Murray on Warehouse 13.  There was enough interest that the Syfy Channel is developing a spin-off with H.G. Wells.

Right now, the plan for the story is for the story of the spin-off to take place in the 1890′s when Warehouse 12 is trying to recruit Wells, but she works as a free-agent solving tough cases.

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I presume that they’ll be using Jaime Murray again, but there was no word, one way or the other if that would be the case.  We can only hope!

After Warehouse 13, Jaime Murray was in an episode of Suite 7 and landed a small role in the prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Cinema Static on Brusimm - TV and Movie Stuff, Weeding through the Static

[Gateworld]

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How TV Ratings Destroyed ‘Stargate Universe’, Not The Syfy Channel

by on May 11, 2011

in Entertainment, television

'Stargate Universe' - The DestinyI noticed that for about eight hours after the series finale of Stargate Universe aired, Google Trends had the show pop up on their charts a few times.  The show broke the top-10 search criteria a few times and even hit the top-5 a few more times throughout the night.  Seems crazy that enough people can make the show crawl into the top-5 of web searches for Google but not have enough ratings to survive for a third season.  But then again, the series finale of Stargate Universe pulled in just over 1.1 million viewers in the ‘Live + Same Day‘ TV ratings.

To be pragmatically honest about it, as a collective, fans didn’t make a strong enough statement with numbers of viewers to make the show worth it to the Syfy channel.  I don’t mean that in a mean way.  Please, read on to understand what I’m thinking.

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'Stargate Universe' The Destiny's final trip

I have been saddened by the gaping hole that Stargate Universe has left in my weekly TV viewing schedule.  I’m frustrated but what can I do about it?  New episodes of the show are gone from the Syfy channel, the Destiny was last seen hurtling through space in that translucent wavering tunnel of shimmering bluish FTL light, continuing on its journey without the fans.

But I have to ask myself how did this happen?  How did this much beloved show meet its demise?  The following is a hard but pragmatic look at how this happened to the fans of Stargate Universe.  I take a step back and have scrutinized the system of TV entertainment itself.  End, Disclaimer.

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The Stargate franchise, after 14 years, has come to an end and from what I can see, various factors came into play that precipitated this event.  I’m going to take some educated guesses and look at repercussions these factors had on the show that will be no more, on the Syfy channel.

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‘Stargate Universe’ Series Finale Review & A Fond Farewell

by on May 9, 2011

in Entertainment, television, tv review

'Stargate Universe' - the Stargate on Destiny

This is a review of the series finale of Stargate Universe…  and I take this moment to send out my appreciation and thanks to the creative forces behind the show, the series and the franchise.  [Spoilers for the DVR viewers planning on watching this at a date other than the original air-date.]

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In this final episode of Stargate Universe, The Destiny’s path is blocked by the drone brigades and the crew has to come up a plan or suffer the consequences.  The first plan is to attenuate ship shields so they can drop out of FTL to get supplies, but the drones adapt.  Eli (David Blue) comes up with a plan to skip the galaxy they’re in and jump to the next one to get away from the drones, but it will take three years and the crew needs to be put on ice.  (Suspended animation)

'Stargate Universe' series finale review 04

Welcome to the Destiny. Please gather your bags and wounded and find your seats!

Dr Rush (Robert Carlyle) doesn’t like it because it’s skipping a galaxy that the ship could collect information from.  Yet if they stick around the drone brigade will take them down!

They choose to start putting crew members in the stasis pods but then discover some issues that need  repair.  Park (Jennifer Spence) comes up with an idea that helps them get the raw supplies they need to repair the stasis pod section.  It works with the sacrifice of one of the shuttles.

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‘Almighty Thor’ on Syfy Channel, A TV Review from Cinema Static

by on May 8, 2011

in Entertainment, television, tv review

'Almighty Thor' TV movie on the Syfy Channel

This is a seriocomical TV review of Almighty Thor on the Syfy Channel.  Prepare thyself dear reader, I had to take this route!

Almighty Thor on the Syfy channel hit it out of the park folks.  That’s right.  Out of the park.  The pitch was high, the batter swung and it was a foul ball up and over the backstop and into the stands.  I think it took out a few patrons in the process!  Those were the lucky ones.

Almighty Thor, from Asylum Home Entertainment, starred Richard Grieco as Loki, Cody Deal as Thor, Kevin Nash as Odin and Patricia Velasquez as Jarnsaxa.  Christopher Ray had the challenge of directing this project from Asylum.

My first question is me wondering if Richard Grieco lost a bet and had to take this part?

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Why UFO, Ghost and Bigfoot Enthusiasts Are So Hard to Believe, Arguments For and Against

by on May 5, 2011

in bruce's thoughts

Bigfoot or SasquatchSo why are UFO, ghost and Bigfoot enthusiasts so hard to take serious these days?

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One of the largest romantic premises of our modern era is the belief or desire to believe, by some or many, of the existence of Bigfoot or that UFOs are real, have visited us or have kidnapped and/or experimented on us.  We have some great documentary and fictional works on the Bigfoot and UFO phenomenology.

D.B. Sweeney gave us an awesome look at Travis Walton’s experience in the movie Fire in the Sky.  Jodie Foster played the scientist who was also questioned about her experience in the 1997 movie Contact.

Ghosts are in so many different movies that it’s become a popular subject matter throughout, though on some television series that go looking for ghosts, they seem to have an awful lot of luck encountering what could possibly be spectral entities.  One of my scariest ghost movies include Paranormal Activity (both) and the 1982 movie, The Entity, starring Barbara Hershey.  Wow, that was a real humdinger with an ending that cements the entire movie experience!

Bigfoot… that’s an all together different matter also, but very little has been created around this legend of the giant herbivore.  Unless you count some of the movies that have come across the Syfy channel.  There were some attempts at looking the subject over in shows like In Search Of and A&E’s Ancient Mysteries and the 1972 flick, The Legend of Boggy Creek.  But sadly, TV “documentaries” has to sensationalize things and I come away disappointed most times from these shows.  The last stupid-ass show I saw, they were baiting camera traps with sides of beef for Sasquatch.  I didn’t stick around for the rest of their noise.

But there are times that some of the enthusiasts do so much more harm than good that it is ridiculous!

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Mike Dopud, SGU’s Varro, on Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome & More [Cinema Static Personality Focus]

by on May 4, 2011

in Entertainment

Mike Dopud in ECHOES

Mike Dopud in ECHOES

In case you didn’t know, the man who plays Varro on Stargate Universe, Mike Dopud, is a busy man indeed. This is a Cinema Static Personality Focus piece.

In an interview over on the Baltimore Sun, Mike Dopud thought he was a shoe-in for the third season of Stargate Universe, but as any fan will attest to, the very last episode of this wonderful show will be airing May 9th on the Syfy channel.  He was disappointed about the developments but then put the nose to the grindstone and got to work, but as you look at his career, he’s been a very busy man, period.

Right now he’s filming a pilot for Fox called Exit Strategy, starring alongside Ethan Hawke.

While doing that, he snuck away to film his part in the pilot for the project Echoes.  That’s being prepared by SGU alumni creative team of Mark Savela and Ken Kabatoff.

But also of interest is that you can catch him in the upcoming movies on the silver screen, Mission Impossible 4, Rise of the Planet of the Apes & This Means War.

For the Battlestar Galactica diehard, he will be playing an integral role in the upcoming prequel/spinoff on the Syfy channel called Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.

Like I said, the man is busy and that’s a great thing because we here at Cinema Static like him.

In that interview he touched on how Varro was becoming a trusted member on board the Destiny in SGU and that he hinted at Varro and TJ maybe getting together, at least if it had gone into a third season.

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Syfy Channel Is Airing Their Own Set of ‘Thor’ Movies

by on May 3, 2011

in Entertainment, television

Syfy Channel LogoA few weeks back Syfy channel aired Asylum Home Entertainment’s rip-off knock-off movie of Battle Los Angeles, by playing Battle of Los Angeles on the same weekend that the box office version opened. Battle of Los Angeles TV Review.

They’re at it again.

This Friday, May 6th, Paramount Pictures Thor opens in theaters the U.S. nationally… and on Saturday night, the Syfy channel will be airing another one of Asylum Home Entertainment’s nuggets of plagiarism, titled Almighty Thor.

We’ll have Thor, Loki, Odin & Jarnsaxa characters in this action-packed pinnacle of adventure.  Ah, in this version of the story, Thor carries his hammer around under a cloak that doubles as a cape when swung right, pulling out the thing to do battle seems like the prop is either too heavy or too big or both & he walks around and apparently uses an Uzi to get the job done… or tries.  Yes, apparently there are Uzi’s in Asgard!

After the break is a teaser (or a warning, depending on how you view it) and a promo poster art.

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Cinema Static’s New ‘Movie Review’ Scales

by on May 2, 2011

in Entertainment

Cinema Static Movie Review & TV Review Scores

For the longest time I’ve been battling with how to score various movies when I write up movie reviews. I’ve struggled because in my opinion you can’t compare Paul to 127 Hours or Transformers to The King’s Speech on the same scale.   Maybe I can use the same movie review scale, but if I ever encounter a spectacular fun action, aka popcorn movie, how do you rate that?  Do you give it a 8, 9 or 10 on the same scale that The King’s Speech?  No, I don’t think so.  For the life of me, I still wonder how newspapers and websites can continue to do that.

Using the same scale for different movies is turning a blind eye to the differences between the genre of film or intended audiences.  With that in mind, I’ve been tinkering with what to do with my review scores.  And let’s not forget television shows!

So I’ve been wondering what I should do?  I use a 10 point system to avoid using 1/2 points on a 5-point scale.  What’s the point of a 5-pointer if you’re going to use 1/2 marks?

In addition to movie scales, I also split out my TV scores because of the Syfy channel and some of the knock-off movies that come out of Asylum that airs on the Syfy channel.

Dramatic Movie Review Score 10Hence, for movies, I’ve come up with two movie scales… the “Dramatic” score and the “Popcorn” score. Now, I can feel more comfortable giving a popcorn movie a score of an 8, 9 or 10! And where, you wonder, do the two scales compare to each other?

Check out my scale below… and you can see where I consider the two scales actually overlap:

Dramatic Scale Popcorn Scale
10 Excellent
9 Outstanding
8 Very Good 10 Excellent
7 Good 9 Outstanding
6 Good, Not Great 8 Very Good
5 Fair 7 Good
4 Moderate 6 Good, Not Great
3 Poor 5 Fair
2 Weak 4 Moderate
1 Crap 3 Poor
2 Weak
1 Crap


A few points:

Popcorn Movie Review Score 10You can see that if I ever encountered an excellent popcorn movie, (5/7/11:  I just did.  The Vin Diesel starring Fast Five forced my hand to reevaluate my scale and it’s not even a week old!)  it would be matched up with a ‘Very Good Dramatic’ movie.  The overlap feels right for me…  as does how I’ve set up my TV review scales.

TV Review Score 10Here’s my TV scale:

TV Scale Syfy Channel Scale
10 Excellent
9 Outstanding
8 Very Good 10 Excellent
7 Good 9 Outstanding
6 Good, Not Great 8 Very Good
5 Fair 7 Good
4 Moderate 6 Good, Not Great
3 Poor 5 Fair
2 Weak 4 Moderate
1 Crap 3 Poor
2 Weak
1 Crap

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Syfy TV Review Score 10Though I’m sort of joking about the Syfy channel scores… there are some fun movies that just don’t belong in the same scale.

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I’m talking from my own corner of the world, from Cinema Static‘s perspective.  I’m not the end-all of any of this.  Where I come from is that when I watch a movie, I come away knowing how it made me feel, what nagged at me, etc..  I ‘m the everyday Joe movie-goer giving you my take.  In other words, we may be speaking from the same place in the realm of movies.

There will probably be kinks to work out with this system but I’ll cross that bridge when I stumble off it.  I think, if anything, this will save my own sanity.  Thanks gang!  Have fun with this one!  -Bruce

PS:  I’m betting a few dollars you’ll start seeing some multiple scales popping up elsewhere soon.  I’m a trend setter!  LOL.

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First designed April 29th, 2011. Tinkered with May 7th, 2011, and words edited June 7th, 2011.

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