Star Trek

Friday’s “Rubicon uncrossed” news

12 November 2010 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Film

  • Zoolander 2, Star Trek 2 a go
  • Trailer for Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch
  • Phillip Noyce to direct time-travel movie Timeless?

British TV

US TV

US TV

Review: Hellcats 1×1-1×3

27 September 2010 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, The CW
In the UK: Not yet acquired

It’s easy to stereotype cheerleaders. Take your pick: blonde Barbies? Bubble heads? Sluts in flesh-expositng outfits? Cliquey? Agents of patriarchy, doing nothing more than standing there and looking pretty while cheering on men? Nothing more than pom pom twirlers?

This is, of course, bollocks.

Apart from the fact that there are male cheerleaders, top-level cheerleading is an incredibly demanding athletic sport – it’s responsible for 2/3 of sports injuries among women at college and requires hours and hours of dedication, training and practice. As with football, its associated scholarships can also be the only way some American women (and men) can afford to go to college and it’s enabled people from the likes of Katie Couric and Meryl Streep through to supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and even Ronald Reagan to get to the upper echelons of society.

These and other stereotype crushing facts are what you’ll learn if you watch The CW’s new dramedy, Hellcats, based on Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick. Oh, and you’ll get to see lots of buff young men and women in skimpy outfits – including Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical! Woo!

Here’s the extended trailer:

Continue reading “Review: Hellcats 1×1-1×3”

Question of the week: which TV show has had the best finale?

19 May 2010 Rob Buckley 18 Comments

So, it’s finale time in the US. Various shows have already aired their finales (Smallville, Supernatural, Gossip Girl) while others are still to come (Chuck). However, some of these finales are going to be series finales, rather than season finales (Lost, 24). There’s not going to be any of these shows, so the writers are going to have to find a way to complete their stories.

Trouble is, a lot of shows when placed in such situations come up with endings that almost no one liked (Life on Mars US, The Sopranos, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise), maybe kind of liked (Battlestar Galactica) or that didn’t really finish off the stories at all (Rome, Quantum Leap). There are very few that almost everyone liked and more or less finished the narrative (Sex and the City – until the movies, of course; Star Trek: The Next Generation).

So this week’s question is

Which TV show has had the best ever final episode?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

TMINE

Let this be your last mousemat

5 April 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

So this is my current desktop wallpaper:

Botticelli's The Birth of Venus

Beautiful, isn’t it? I love the fact the nymph in the top-left hand corner looks like Kristen Stewart (except she’s smiling – that’s the obvious giveaway).

So should I get it as a mousemat as well? I’m only asking because this is the obvious rival:

Captain Kirk

Tricky decision, isn’t it?