I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
Last week, Diana, Queen of the Amazons, made a lot of appearances on the covers of comics, but didn’t actually show up inside many of them. She was on the cover of Justice League of America #4, fighting some alien priests with Aquaman.
But did she turn up inside to fight some alien priests with Aquaman? Not at all. And as for Aquaman, he was watching tele with Mera instead.
Talk about misadvertising.
Meanwhile, over on the cover of DC Bombshells, Diana was ready for action with her lightning-equipped, Volume 3, Gail Simone bracelets.
Was she inside using them? Nope. It was just Batwoman and Italian Catwoman flirting with each other in 1940s Berlin at a party of demon-worshipping Nazis. Alternative universe Dullsville that.
For a bit of contrast, while she wasn’t on the cover of the first issue of limited series nu52/alternative reality Convergencespectacular Superman: Lois & Clark, she was certainly inside. Unfortunately, it was part of yet another flashback to that first Justice Leaguestoryline involving Darkseid, so that author Dan Jurgens could make the point that the nu52 universe was a bit gloomy compared to the pre-Flashpoint one.
Reasurringly, despite those mere glimpses, we had a couple of proper appearances, too. The first was in the final return of Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, which has been cancelled due to a bit of (alleged) internal politics at DC. In its place is coming a prequel series, The Legend of Wonder Woman, starting in January. Prequel to what, you might ask? Well, it’s definitely a young woman on Themyscira and the story of how she ended up coming to Man’s World. But is it a prequel to the nu52/DCYou Wonder Woman’s arrival or is it a prequel to Batman V Superman, due out in March?
Dunno, but I’m sure time will tell.
Until then, we do have a few more Sensation Comics to enjoy. The first sees the return of an old enemy. Can you guess who?
It’s Cheetah. It’s always Cheetah. What’s the matter with you? How was that not your first guess?
Anyway, in this alternative reality, maybe Cheetah isn’t as bad as everyone thought. You can find out more about that after the jump.
Also after the jump is the final installment of Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Four. Last issue, Zeus was facing off against Highfather in a battle for supremacy among gods for planet Earth. Can you imagine how exciting it’s all going to be and how central Diana will be to the plot?
Each year, as the Upfronts season comes round, I post all the summaries and trailers for the new shows set to appear on our screens in the new season. Usually, these trailers have been pretty reliable indicators of the quality of shows, with sucky shows having sucky trailers and good shows having good trailers. Sucky shows appeal to people with sucky taste, good shows appeal to people with good taste – this is how trailers should work.
This year, however, it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. When CBS rolled out its trailers for the new season, a groan could be heard around the world as millions of people saw the trailer from Supergirl and thought, “WTF?”
Except, of course, the trailer was misleading, and while not perfect, Supergirl is really a whole load of fun.
Coming from the director of 500 Days of Summer and with animated sequences, musical numbers and more, this is actually quite a funny, innovative-looking little piece that could go pretty much anywhere, so I’m certainly going to be giving it a try.
But now I’ve seen it and all I can say now is “Oh, arse. Bloody trailers.”
In the US: Fridays, 8.30/7.30c, NBC In the UK: Not yet acquired
We recently discussed Buckley’s ‘All producers live in Islington’ Hypothesis, which suggests that TV producers don’t actually watch TV shows. They may have heard of them, but they don’t watch them.
The latest piece of proof for this hypothesis – we’re dangerously close to calling it a theory now – is Truth Be Told. To show you how weak from the outset the whole idea for the show is, I’ll tell you that the working title for the show was People Are Talking. That’s not a proper name for a TV show – that’s a name for a reality show mockumentary.
Anyway, it’s fair to say that despite allegedly being based on the life of show producer and general death knell for quality and humour, DJ Nash (Hank, Accidentally On Purpose, Til Death, Traffic Light, Bent, Up All Night, Guys With Kids– is there a producer with a worse track record?), whose last sitcom, Growing Up Fisher, was also allegedly semi-autobiographical, Truth Be Told is basically the result of someone having heard about Black-ish and deciding to do their own version. Except badly.
It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Raising the Bar, Franklin and Bash, but mainly Saved By The Bell) as a professor of ethics. Yes, Mark-Paul Gosselaar. As a professor of ethics.
Seeing any problems yet? At the very least with the US education system?
Well, stick with me anyway. Gosselaar’s married to Filipina Vanessa Lachey (Dads), while his best friend and neighbour Tone Bell (Bad Judge) is a black standup comic newly married to Bresha Webb (ER, Grey’s Anatomy). Ooh, how diverse.
So guess what. They’re going to talk about modern ethical dilemmas to do with race, sex, gender, politics and more. You know, the things that people can’t talk about in real life, but which a daring modern sitcom can. You know, one like Black-ish.
Oh yes.
So what’s Truth Be Told going to go with? Well – prepare yourself for the controversy – it’s going to talk about whether it’s racist for someone to assume a car driver is white because he has a Jonathan Meyer CD in his car. Or whether it’s okay to ask the hot babysitter whether she’s done porn. How about whether you should hide the fact you have tickets to the Adult Film Awards from your wife or just tell her?
Typical modern day ethical dilemmas, hey? How could even the highly developed ethical mind of Professor Mark-Paul Gosselaar deal with these sort of issues, which we face every day but to which until now no one has developed adequate moral frameworks in response? Thank the gods for Truth Be Told, hey?
Alternatively, encase it in concrete, bury beneath the ocean floor and pray no one opens it for a thousand years. Or better still, never, in case future archaeologists think this is our equivalent of Aristotle.
