Reviews

I watched this partly because of the huge gap between the positive and negative reviews here on IMDb.

It's hard for me to believe that there's anyone PAYING IMDb reviewers to pump up the reviews for anything at all, much less a relatively low budget made-for-sciffy-channel waste of time. But hey, since you're obviously out there somewhere, drop me a line, I could use the spare change... Okay, just kidding.

But it's terrible. Of course you'll probably need to make your own decision, but when you do, count my vote on the "for goodness' sake DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME" side. I hope for your sake reading these reviews is ALL the time you waste on this movie.

The ONLY positive I can think of is that SOME of the acting wasn't horrible. All the special effects are, most of the writing is (some of it's merely mediocre), and although I don't consider myself much of a judge of directing or cinematography, it certainly isn't good enough to redeem this turkey.

Good Eats is my favorite cooking show, ever. It's also one of my favorite science programs.

AB's curiosity about nearly all things is catching, and that makes for the best kind of teaching.

Is ANY topic safe from this man's parody? I certainly hope not.

In "Give Peas a Chance", broadcast last night, he gives a recipe for a vegetarian burger-substitute. I'm a lifelong confirmed omnivore, but I've sampled many an amazing vegetarian dish, including some well-known commercial burger substitutes, and I'm probably going to have to give these pseudo-burgers a try soon.

Even simple, straightforward tips like using Kosher salt are explained (in "Eat This Rock", an hour-long episode) not just pontificated. And that one tiny detail has made a seasoning mini-revolution in my own kitchen.

Keep having fun, AB!

Apparently USA Network had a couple of hours to kill this evening, and coincidentally, so did I. This show actually deserves better than just to be filler. I wouldn't expect it to earn a lot of superlatives, but it was certainly entertaining, thought provoking, and adequately produced. Produced, in my opinion, with the intent of selling the premise as a series.

One I'd probably have watched.

I was a bit distracted by the similarity of Flanigan's character to his later work on Stargate, but then I suppose this was part of what earned him that role. If this show still manages to sell, I guess they'll have to replace him...

I'm a fan of the original CSI, and only slightly less so of the Miami spin off, but even though I wanted to like it, this spin off-of-a-spin off has lost me already. It may be just the writing - for example I found it inexcusable that they built an entire episode around having the perpetrator ask "Who ratted me out?" only to have that critical punchline scene fall flat. Injecting a spot of humor now and then into a drama is a great idea, but it needs to be a believable spot. Or at least a well done spot.

I suppose it's possible they may still find their stride, but I don't plan on tuning in to watch for it. If it's eventually successful, I'll have ample opportunities to catch re-runs. And even if it's not, the episodes will probably get thrown into the syndication packages of its sibling shows.

I can't lose by giving it a pass. Maybe if it falters at least a little, Bruckheimer and crew would consider trying something that's actually different, instead of the same'ol same'ol, just done in another shade.

Many years ago, when I was a teen or perhaps a little younger, I recall getting "stuck on" a subtitled, serial version of Miyamoto Musashi which was being broadcast locally at about the time I got home from school. It was fascinating in a way that I don't remember anything before catching my attention. Without any studying, I was picking up hints and concepts of foreign cultures, history, ethics, philosophy ... and just enough swordplay to hold a teen's interest. I recall telling my friends about it, laughingly calling it a "Samurai Soap Opera" and getting a few of them hooked as well.

So far, I have seen only perhaps eight episodes, but it took me several of those to be sure it wasn't the same show. I'm no authority on feudal Japan, what scenes should look like, how people interacted, but this show, along with some of what little I've learned of the Musashi legend in the decades since watching the earlier show, leads me to feel that I'm learning things about human nature, motivation, and all those other things, while being entertained by believable characters, a time-tested story, and the occasional bout of almost-believable swordplay.

Some of my feelings for this new show are probably nostalgia for the time when I watched the other, but still I find it highly entertaining, and perhaps even a little enlightening. And that's a rare find in a television show.