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Doux News: January 5, 2014

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan
This Week: Superhero Roundup -- What We’re Not Watching -- Better Call Saul -- Veronica Mars Trailer -- Matt Zoller Seitz -- Welcome to Night Vale -- Argh, Pirates -- This Week in Casts -- Last Week in Time Travel -- This week in Katt (Williams)


Superhero Roundup

Arrow showrunner Andrew Kreisberg went on record with TVLine this week about how he sees his show in relationship with Agents of SHIELD: “We don’t really feel like we’re in competition with anybody else,” said Kreisberg, adding “I think all of us here—not just as writers but as viewers—are thrilled that we’re in what feels like a golden age of comic book adaptations in both film and television.” Kreisberg name-checked SHIELD as well as the upcoming Gotham, Constantine, and Daredevil shows slated for next fall. Of all those shows, you know which one I'm most excited to see (or see more of)? Arrow. Thanks, JD and D.O.U.X. superfans for convincing me to watch it!

Meanwhile, Christopher Markus, the writer for the upcoming Captain America Winter Soldier film, explained that “Cap” (a nickname that I think is overwhelmingly annoying) “doesn’t really have an arc.” Rather, Cap is “kind of the still center and things happen around him and are influenced by him.” So I guess Cap won’t be able to tell people to stop using the annoying nickname.


What We're Not Watching

Reddit has a very long thread on all the movies expiring from Netflix’s streaming service right about now: the list includes the Disney Alice in Wonderland as well as Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Vulture boiled the list down to the titles that expired on January 1 here.

One film that isn’t on the list is Blackfish, which ChrisB discussed in a recent New Shows column. Blackfish is the story of Tilikum, an orca kept in captivity by Sea World after being stolen from his mother in babyhood. As ChrisB said, “The film argues that what we do when we put animals in cages is not only inhumane, it is immoral and the consequences can be fatal. Don’t miss this. It will make you think long and hard about our role as humans in the natural world.” It will also make you cry for a really, really long time. I recommend watching it, but I also recommend not watching it on grounds of sad sad sob sad.


Better Call Saul

Breaking Bad mastermind Vince Gilligan did an extensive interview with Entertainment Weekly, in which he looks back at Breaking Bad and forward toward the upcoming Better Call Saul and Battle Creek. Gilligan explained that Better Call Saul will mostly take place pre-Walter White, but admitted that the show might “flash forward” if necessary. He also mentioned that it would be great to get Jonathan Banks’ character Mike for a few episodes, explaining that “Better Call Saul could be The Love Boat of its generation, where instead of Milton Berle showing up in a sailor’s cap, hopefully it could be Aaron Paul, also in a sailor’s cap.”


Veronica Mars Trailer





Matt Zoller Seitz

One of the perils of the internet’s fast-paced, low-wage environment is that I occasionally lose sight of writers I like as they jump from site to site in search of rent money. So I was happily surprised to find Matt Zoller Seitz’s TV reviews on Vulture and its sister publication, New York Magazine, and even happier to discover him on rogerebert.com a few days later. (I wasn’t even looking!) I’m so happy, in fact, that I’m going to randomly plug his book about Wes Anderson. I haven’t read it, and will never read it (I don’t care for Wes Anderson, except for The Fantastic Mr. Fox), but if you do like Wes Anderson, check it out. Here’s a preview.


Welcome to Night Vale

Podcast sensation Welcome to Night Vale will soon be available as a novel from Harper Perennial. The Welcome to Night Vale podcast describes itself as “a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.” Tons of people have recommended it to me, and it does sound right up my alley, but I'm never quite sure what to do with a podcast. Or rather, what to do when I'm listening to a podcast. Do I just sit there? Do I clean the house? Play dopey computer games?


Argh, Pirates

TorrentFreak listed the top ten illegally downloaded shows on BitTorrent, and Game of Thrones has the dubious honor of first place for the second year in a row. The other most-stolen shows include The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, The Big Bang Theory, and Arrow. The article points out that people sometimes download or stream illegally even if there are free, licensed options available: “[I]t’s not always that easy for existing pirates to give up their habit, not even if the legal options are widely available and free. For example, The Walking Dead premiere this year was downloaded en masse in the US, despite the fact that AMC streamed the show for free.”


This Week in Casts

Luke Grimes, who plays James on True Blood, has left that series. According to TVLine, the role will be re-cast.

• The Agents of D.O.U.X. have already reported that Alicia Witt and Michael Rappaport will feature in the upcoming season of Justified. But did you know that Dave Foley, of News Radio and Kids in the Hall will also have a small role? How awesome is that!

Vince Gilligan will guest star on an episode of Community.

Will Arnett (Arrested Development) will guest star on this week’s episode of The Simpsons.


Last Week in Time Travel

Two researchers at Michigan Technical University recently published the results of an experiment/quest to find time travelers. According to The Atlantic, the researchers used a variety of search tools and queries on social media to figure out whether or not time travelers had posted information prior to that information existing. (For example, they used “Pope Francis” as one of the data points.) Although their search turned up no evidence of time travel, Professor Brian Greene, who was not affiliated with the study, explained that “It’s not crazy, and yet it feels crazy when you think about it.” He has a PhD.


This Week in Katt (Williams)

(Warning: video contains strong language. And lots of mime.)





5 comments:

  1. The article on pirating is fascinating. The idea that having someone steal your work is somehow a good thing as it creates "cultural buzz" seems counterintuitive to me. If you want the masses to see your show, why not give it to them legally? What am I missing here?

    Thanks for plugging Blackfish again. I have taken some heat from others about the fact that I did not warn them about how sad it is and how hard it is to watch when I told them to watch it. It is very sad and very hard to watch, but I do believe everyone should do so.

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  2. Best photo ever. And I love that they're seriously researching the possibility that time travel exists.

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  3. Chores are a great thing to do while listening to a podcast. I can get laundry, cleaning, dishes, and meal preparation done while laughing, learning, and generally being entertained. The only problem is that the kids always come running into the kitchen while I've got the water running and a podcast going, so I invariably have to hit "pause" a lot. :)

    I'm generally not too excited about Better Call Saul, but the idea of being able to possibly spend some new time with Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut does make it a bit more tempting. Maybe a little Gustavo Fring, too, please?

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  4. I'm just going to throw this out there. Luke Grimes isn't exactly a superstar, so he was probably thrilled to be cast in a cult series like True Blood. So how bad could the next season possibly be that a young actor with no huge prospects would read the scripts and say, "Oh, hell. I have GOT to get out of this contract!" (Okay, sure, he's going to be in the film version of 50 Shades of Grey, but I have a feeling that movie will eventually be something everyone involved avoids mentioning in their future interviews.)

    I stuck with True Blood even though it let me down time and again, but I am not feeling at all optimistic that the final season is going to be any good at all. In fact, I think it's going to make me wish I'd stop watching three seasons ago.

    On a positive note: Yay! Jonathan Banks on Community! I've adored him since Wiseguy.

    KAM

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  5. To be honest, I found Welcome to Night Vale a little monotonous. It's probably a mistake to listen to several of them in a row.

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