Dusk to Dawn: The Series (netflix)

Notice the two headed snake? Me either.



I finished the series Dusk to Dawn by Robert Rodriguez. I think he did a fantastic job of expanding the backstories of movie. Through 10 episodes, the characters’ lives are explored in depth. The pace was the same as the movie and keeps you engaged. I never got bored. There’s plenty of surprising revelations in the stories.  There were plenty of twists and turns, but it always got back on track with the movie. Plenty of nice touches with the characters. It took me half the season to realize Carlos (bad guy) is Wilmer Valderrama (aka Fez of That 70’s Show). As I mentioned before D. J. Cortona as Seth Gecko and Zane Holtz as his brother Richie were exceptional. There are plenty of beautiful woman, er, vampire creatures to keep the eyes glazed over.

Watching how Rodriguez constructed this season, I can see he will have no problem of putting together season 2. It pretty much can go anywhere, much like American Horror Story does.

I highly recommend the series, if you liked the movie

Toy Story That Time Forgot
I've been looking forward to this, and... yeah, it was cool.

I'm really curious to see the blu-ray, obviously the picture feels restrictive on 4:3 SD, but I know there's a TON of work that went on behind the scenes, the Battlesaurs were developed in a heck of a lot of detail, which I'm sure we only scratch the surface of in the course of the special.  And if the last Blu is any guide, there should be some awesome fake commercials in there as well.  Plus I'm really curious about the voices, only the "big name" cast are listed online, most of the interesting side characters aren't credited on the sites.

BTW, I imagine there are going to be a lot of "Angel Kitty" ornaments sold in the near future.

I just watched the pilot for "The Man In The High Castle," it was good (and it looked freakin' AMAZING).  I had been reminded of the book because of the Japanese San Francisco in Big Hero 6, so it was weird so soon after seeing it "for real" on this show. 

The show takes place in 1962, about 20 years after the Nazis won World War II, and all is... well, crummy but status quo, except that Mr Hitler has Parkinsons, and once he dies, the sh*t is gonna hit the fan with a full out war between the Nazis and empire of Japan.

They do a real creepy version of Times Square with a giant neon version of the Nazi flag in the center, and while I can totally imagine that the Nazis would put their stamp on everything, seeing the swastika on the freakin' PHONE felt like overkill.  I kept thinking abut Emperor and how the Americans helped rebuild Japan after WWII and how the defeat became part of their cultural persona, and I know it would be different with the Nazis and the Japanese, but all the conquered stuff felt very "surface."  The best thing they did was the state trooper, there's this scene where the main character gets his flat tired fixed by this state trooper, totally regular working joe, nice guy, exactly the same character you'd see with any state trooper in any show, and he mentions he was a soldier when he was young and now he doesn't even remember what they were fighting for anymore.  And right after that, it starts snowing ash, and he explains "that's from the hospital, they burn the bodies every Tuesday."  Creepy as f*ck, and played totally straight, no music, no dramatic music, nothin'.  I'm hoping for more of that if the series gets an order, which I imagine will.

Oh, this is why I don't like pilot season, outside of the waste of developing a show and only doing one episode, I'll have to wait for freaking EVER to see the next episode.  I want to watch episode 2 now, man!


Now, I'm watching the pilot for "Mad Dogs," it's based on a British show I wanted to see (it had Philip Glenister and John Simm from "Life On Mars"), it's about four friends who go to Belize only to realize that the dude who invited them (Billy Zane) is a criminal.  The show's got Michael Imperioli and Steve Zahn in it, and I don't remember who else, but it looks pretty darn beautiful too.



Oh, just started "C o c k e d."  Wasn't really keen on it until I found out Jason Lee is in it!  And guess who showed up in the first scene, Big Mike from Chuck!

Amazon Prime.  In fact, i don't think you need Prime, I watched the pilots last year just on their web site.  Prime just lets me watch them on my Roku.

Dang, I even like C o c k e d!  It feels like Nashville or Dallas but about a crusty, crazy gun company with the liberal son having to come in to save the company.