TV That Molded a Geek: Roswell

Roswell

This TV show isn't really one that molded me; rather, it perfectly fit a certain time in my life so well that it might as well have been molded to me.  Everyone can probably find a TV show or movie that just gets everything right - the clothes, the hair, the conversation topics.  For a certain generation, it's John Hughes movies like Sixteen Candles.  For me - a teenage geek girl whose room brimmed with aliens of all kinds, ranging from the neon green plush to the purple inflatable - it was … [Read more...]

Trust No One: Secret Sectors On-Screen

mib

In the world of on-screen science fiction (or sf lite), most writers can agree on one truth: if extra-terrestrials exist, the government knows about it.  Sometimes they're fighting evil aliens, sometimes they're protecting us normies from mind-exploding truths, and sometimes they're the bad guys; any way you cut it, they all make us just a little more paranoid and we love it.  This week the news has been full of a government that needs a little help pulling together and Getting Stuff Done; in … [Read more...]

Doctor Who: Back With a Bang

whoamerica

I've just finished watching the second episode of the second Moffat season's 2-part Doctor Who premiere.  For the second time.  You see, I wanted to really ruminate on this premiere story before I wrote a review about it - not to mention give you all time to see it too.  Because I admit it: when the credits rolled last Saturday, I was grumpy.  Sure, I followed the plot well enough, but I was not happy with some of the conclusions one could make.  And all the loose ends!  And after that … [Read more...]

Netflix Instant: Feeding My TV Addiction

jekyll

I feel like I've been watching a ton of TV lately.  Here's the thing, though: even taking into account the final episodes of LOST and the new Doctor Who series, a very small fraction of the TV I've been watching has actually been sent to my cable box.  The rest has been thanks to Netflix Instant. I was an early adopter of Netflix; my queue began in 2001.  I can't remember the last time I got a DVD, though - I've been getting more than my money's worth just using Instant.  In recent … [Read more...]

TV That Molded a Geek: The X-Files

xfiles

This month's Movie That Molded a Geek is not a movie at all (well, eventually it was, but we're not going to cover those today), but rather a TV show.  When thinking back over what shaped me as a geek, one TV show rises above all others, and was perhaps more influential than any movie: The X-Files. The year was 1993.  I was a ten-year-old, starting the fifth grade.  While I had grown up watching Star Wars and my parents were avid readers of speculative fiction, I hadn't really hopped on … [Read more...]

Movies That Molded a Geek: Taken

Taken, this month's movie, might not have been from my formative years, but I think my formative years explain why I like it so much. No, I'm not talking about that movie with Liam Neeson.  Technically, the Taken I'm talking about is a miniseries that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel (RIP) in 2002.  It was a relatively big-budget Spielberg project that followed in the wake of Band of Brothers but didn't get near the popularity or acclaim. And I totally love it. I was in college when it … [Read more...]

Revisits: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I was thrilled when the new episode of Red Dwarf turned out to be a good one.  It reminded me that in cinema and on TV, we've had many revisits over the years, with mixed results. Here's a review of some of the most notable, plus my Dream Revisit. … [Read more...]