It's been a good week for me as far as the visual arts go, I think.
Exhibit A: WALL-E. If you haven't seen this film yet, stop reading this and go see it. You really owe it to yourself. Let's start with the obvious reasons: it's technically flawless, and entertaining as hell. It really has to be technically flawless, because so much of it is told visually. But perfect technique doesn't make for a great film on its own. WALL-E follows in the steps of all the best sci-fi by not making the film about the sci-fi setting, but making it about people. The setting is just a backdrop for human drama, and WALL-E delivers in spades.
Exhibit B: In Plain Sight. This is USA's new original series about the US Witness Protection Program, and it caught me off guard. I watched the pilot because everything else had either gone off the air or was about to go off the air for summer. The pilot had me laughing the whole time, but the next couple of episodes had a far less funny bent. Last week's episode struck a nice balance between serious and funny. In short, In Plain Sight is a really smart show with a great cast and a really broad range. It's almost guaranteed to surprise, and I expect the cast and crew to continue putting out really solid TV all summer long.
Exhibit C: This week's comics, Astonishing X-Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take over the reins on Astonishing X-Men after the heart wrenching end to Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's brilliant 25-issue run on the series. Whedon and Cassaday's run suffered from some time dilation relative to the rest of the Marvel Universe, but Ellis brings us up to the present in a pretty nice fashion. It's a solid handoff one of Marvel's best titles. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon, fresh off his runs on Astonishing X-Men and Runaways, returns to writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a big way, bringing back Melaka Fray. Melaka was the star of Joss's miniseries about a 26th century Slayer, the first to be called in centuries, and it'll be very interesting to see what happens when Slayers six centuries apart collide.
Edited to add:
Exhibit D: The final volume of Y: The Last Man, collected in trade paperback as Whys and Wherefores, reached my hands on Thursday. Brian K. Vaughan made me cry.
Exhibit A: WALL-E. If you haven't seen this film yet, stop reading this and go see it. You really owe it to yourself. Let's start with the obvious reasons: it's technically flawless, and entertaining as hell. It really has to be technically flawless, because so much of it is told visually. But perfect technique doesn't make for a great film on its own. WALL-E follows in the steps of all the best sci-fi by not making the film about the sci-fi setting, but making it about people. The setting is just a backdrop for human drama, and WALL-E delivers in spades.
Exhibit B: In Plain Sight. This is USA's new original series about the US Witness Protection Program, and it caught me off guard. I watched the pilot because everything else had either gone off the air or was about to go off the air for summer. The pilot had me laughing the whole time, but the next couple of episodes had a far less funny bent. Last week's episode struck a nice balance between serious and funny. In short, In Plain Sight is a really smart show with a great cast and a really broad range. It's almost guaranteed to surprise, and I expect the cast and crew to continue putting out really solid TV all summer long.
Exhibit C: This week's comics, Astonishing X-Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take over the reins on Astonishing X-Men after the heart wrenching end to Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's brilliant 25-issue run on the series. Whedon and Cassaday's run suffered from some time dilation relative to the rest of the Marvel Universe, but Ellis brings us up to the present in a pretty nice fashion. It's a solid handoff one of Marvel's best titles. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon, fresh off his runs on Astonishing X-Men and Runaways, returns to writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a big way, bringing back Melaka Fray. Melaka was the star of Joss's miniseries about a 26th century Slayer, the first to be called in centuries, and it'll be very interesting to see what happens when Slayers six centuries apart collide.
Edited to add:
Exhibit D: The final volume of Y: The Last Man, collected in trade paperback as Whys and Wherefores, reached my hands on Thursday. Brian K. Vaughan made me cry.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
toothpickmoe:
I seem to remember enjoying a routine or two from them. This year, not so much...
coyotemike:
Thanks for the tips. Go check what I put up on CE