Fringe does its take on the lonely child whose imaginary friend really exists. The real focus remains on Walter, who grows less sane with each week.
Author Archives: JD DeLuzio
Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Computer Maverick and Apple Founder Steve Jobs has passed away after a seven-year struggle with illness.
Halloween Review: Zodiac (2007)
We’re baa-aack!
Wolves howl and blood runs cold and leaves crunch underfoot, and once again, the Bureau runs its annual Halloween countdown. In addition to the usual weekend movie reviews of horrorfilms past (and one on the big night), we’ll also be running a lot of scaaary videogame reviews and gothic comic reviews and seasonal surprises.
We start this weekend with a real-world thriller from the director of Fight Club and Seven and Panic Room.
The Zodiac was real. He did terrible things. The police never got him.
Fringe Discussion: “One Night in October”
This episode gives us an interesting use of the Alternate Reality Where History Happened Differently But Somehow the Same People Exist (ARWHHDBSSPE): a police expert helps track down his other-world duplicate, a serial killer.
It’s also a study of Nurture and Circumstances over Nature.
Newspace
This week we have a possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox, a lot of smart people claiming the universe is, indeed, stranger than we imagine (it’s not just the OPERA Particle Detector that’s challenging our understanding of things)1, and an epic battle of memes.
Terra Nova Discussion: “Genesis”
With all this talk of maybe-faster-than-light neutrinos, we neglected to discuss the heavyweight of the new genre series, Brannon Braga and Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova. Equal parts cozy catastrophe, SF of ideas, and dino-shooting adventure, the first episode had its moments and some standout performances, but the character dynamics seem forced, the CGI is uneven, and I’m not convinced its ratings will justify the multi-million dollar budget.
What did the Bureau think?
Fringe Discussion: “Neither Here Nor There”
Fringe has survived, and in its fourth season premiere, the shape of the show shifts again. This season, it appears, will involve two worlds working together.
Who’s watching?
Weekend Review: Mojave Phone booth
In the 1960s, Bell placed a phone booth in the Mojave Desert, at the intersection of two dirt roads, in order to serve nearby miners and other residents of the sparsely-populated area. In 1997, the phone became something of a phenomenon after its number appeared online, drawing regular callers and wandering pilgrims from around the world. Pacific Bell removed the phone in 2000.
In 2006, an independent film appeared that uses the Mojave Phone Booth to bring together four overlapping tales involving strained relationships, technological interfaces with human life, high-end prostitution, contemporary alienation, and alien contactees.
It won numerous awards at film festivals, but received mixed mainstream reviews and limited distribution. Is it worth seeking out?
Newspace
We’ve got a Mars rocket in the news, discoveries in space, a rare find in Britain, dinosaur feathers in Canada, and some real-world Frankenscience in Glasgow.
Torchwood: “The Bloodline”
Miracle Day spiraled in slow-motion from promising opener into padded mediocrity, and finally reached its conclusion this weekend with explosions, death, confrontations, and the bloody inevitable Deus ex Jackina.
Did the series redeem itself? Well, about as much as Oswald Danes….