Evan Primakow Online

Jessie made a comment the other night while I was watching UFO Hunters on the History Channel that got me thinking: Why do they still call it the History Channel. Sure, they still air plenty of historical shows and documentaries, but all of their “prime time” shows have just about nothing to do with history. I think the best way for the network to handle this is to split off in to two separate stations. Similarly to how Cartoon Network didn’t have enough time in the day to air both classic and modern cartoons, so they split off the classic cartoons in to the Boomerang channel. Keep the History Channel for shows that actually involve, well, history, and create a new channel for all of their “hit” shows that have absolutely nothing to do with history. The types of shows that they’ve been airing (UFO Hunters, Monsterquest, Cities of the Underworld, Ax Men, et al.), all seem like they would fit great in a network called something along the lines of “The Discovery Channel”. Alas, I did a little bit of research and learned that the discovery channel is already taken. To the best of my knowledge, the History and Discovery channels are in no way affiliated, so the History Channel will have to do better than “Discovery 2″ as a name for my proposed spin-off channel. Something along the lines of “[H] Explore” might work well, as they can keep the their logo for brand recognition, while better identifying the content that they air.

Good news, everyone! I’ve been waiting for this day since the final episode of Futurama aired in late 2003. I had always hoped that this day would come and here it is. I swung by Best Buy on my way home from work today and when the friendly, yet persistently annoying yellow shirt at the front door asked me if there was anything he could help me find. I promptly answered no, as I could already see Bender’s eyes staring out at me from an entire row of DVDs in the front aisle of the store, right where it should be. I grabbed my copy and was promptly in a short line waiting to pay. I finally had it. Fresh off the press, brand new Futurama. Now, enough of my mindless dribble and on to the actual review.

What can I say, it was great. Really, it was beyond great. I have no doubts that part of what made it a phenomenal movie was the anticipation, but even having watched it a second time, it’s still incredible. It fits perfectly with previous episodes of Futurama and fulfills any expectations I had of the movie. As with every previous episode the humor ranges from slapstick to extremely intelligent and the entire film is filled with quotable lines which I’m sure will be a part of my regular speech in due time. The dialog and plot were extremely well-written and the cameos that one has come to love and expect in the series were awesome and, in all instances, hilarious. Without spoiling anything, I can say that Al Gore had a few lines in the film that had me literally laughing out loud. Beyond the constant humor, great cameos, and well written plot, the tie-ins with previous episodes in the series were very well done and fit in perfectly with the episode. I could probably continue to go on about how impressed I am with the return of Futurama, but I’ll let you go back to whatever it was you were doing before you decided to read this.

Final thoughts? Go buy a copy. It’s worth it. In fact, buy two. Give one to a friend.

I watch my share of television. I am even willing to admit that I’ve been totally hooked on several shows (Futurama comes to mind). Never, however, have I seen a series as enthralling as The 4400.

I’ve been watching it more or less since the beginning. It originally aired as just a 6 episode miniseries, which was great, but it was so critically acclaimed that it came back the next summer as a full-fledged TV show. I’ve since watched every season since it first aired and so far own the first two seasons on DVD. I’ve truly never seen this happen to any TV show quite like this, but every single season gets exponentially better. I’m honestly not exaggerating, every season is better than the last by a long shot and that in no way leaves out the just-concluded fourth season. Multiple times during the most recent season’s finale my jaw literally dropped and I got giddy with excitement for what had just happened, what was about to happen, and/or what was alluded will happen during the next season - which, by the way, I cannot wait to see.

So you’ve read this, you’ve never seen the show, which seems to be the case among many of my friends. Here’s all you need to know, taken from Wikipedia, before you start watching it:

What is originally thought to be a comet deposits a group of exactly 4400 people at Highland Beach, in the Cascade Range foothills near Mount Rainier, Washington. All of the 4400 disappeared at various times starting in 1946 in a beam of white light. After their return, none have aged, all are disoriented, and remember nothing between the time of their disappearance and their return.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that beyond what you’ve read above, the show is classified as Sci-Fi. Take from that what you will, but whether you’re a Sci-Fi fan or not, this series is phenomenal and worth your time as well as every penny of the cost of buying the currently available seasons. If you know me personally and want to borrow seasons one and two, just ask. If you don’t know me personally but still want to watch it, go buy season one. You won’t regret your purchase.