Michael Jackson’s still making news, this time ensuring that his death was a tragedy. The official report out of the LA coroner’s office was that Jackson’s death was a homicide, brought on by the mixture of drugs he was being prescribed for his sleep disorder. So he very well may not have been too frail for those London concerts … but we’ll never know.

• In related news, A&E is going forward with the Jackson family reality show. Exploitation or honor? You decide!
• The passing of Ted Kennedy brought all kinds of specials honoring this last of the dynasty. Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 1, Episodes 9 – 10)

With this episode, we got to see — Holy crap! Did River just cut up Jayne!? And did she just shoot three dudes without looking? Finally, some of River’s badassery is making itself known. I’m digging the team dynamic revealing itself; it’s the ensemble cast that really makes this show work.

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(Season 1, Episodes 7-8)

I was recently telling one of my friends about finally seeing the appeal of Firefly in the sixth episode, and she nodded knowingly and casually said, “That’s Whedon for you.” I was previously unaware of this trend, but I’ve been told that a lot of Joss Whedon projects don’t really pick up speed until six or so episodes into the season. This would probably explain why I quit watching Buffy after the, like, fourth episode.

It’s unfortunate that many of Whedon’s shows seem to take so long to pick up speed. Sure, it rewards the more patient viewers but that must really kill the numbers for him. Not everyone can hang on long enough to see something like the “Out of Gas” episode.

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(Season 1, Episode 6)

Finally! Six episodes in, and I can finally understand why people like this show. This episode was sexy, funny, extra weird, and everything in between. And, there was a definite sense of character and team dynamic that, up until now, felt rather weak. I have my fingers crossed that this fun isn’t just a fluke, but a sign of the awesomeness to come. Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 1, Episode 5)

All right, River better do something even remotely interesting again soon because displaying a slight fondness for cattle and prancing around in an over-sized sweater (and bike shorts under her pink skirt?)  isn’t quite enough for me to like her.

Until I find a reason to take River super-seriously, I’m going to think about how hilarious it is that wee Simon was played by Zac Efron. Ha! Look at ‘im there. He’s so sad.

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(Season 1, Episode 4)

For the past few episodes, I’ve had to turn subtitles on because I can never tell when they’re speaking English and when they’re speaking Mandarin. I love how some of the actors barely attempt to do the proper Mandarin accent and just apply their own inflection, which makes everything an extra-nightmare, because Mandarin is all about inflection. This is precisely the same reason I avoid speaking it because I always accidentally insult/proposition someone. These situations end badly. Usually.

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(Season 1, Episode 3)

Ah, here we go! After seeing this episode, I think I kind of, sort of understand what Firefly is trying to do. The first two were interesting but left me a little confused about what I was watching. As reader MarcDom7 pointed out in my last post, the pilot was an introduction and the second episode was an awkward re-introduction. Now that the gang is kicking in on some real adventures and not a camping trip gone horribly wrong as I had previous expected, I’m more willing to go along for the ride.

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