Justice League Animated: Finishing Out Season One

Let's discuss the final episodes of the first season...

• "A Knight of Shadows" introduces the "dark ages" DC characters, such as Jack Kirby's Etrigan (Michael T. Weiss) and Morgaine Le Fay (Olivia d'Abo)
  • DC always took the Arthurian legend mixed with ideas of their own--Le Fay living into the modern age, Merlin cursing Jason Blood with the rhyming demon Etrigan
  • In a recurring theme on the series, Martian Manhunter gets whammied  when he tries to read the bad guys' mind. I guess if they didn't do this, it would be easy for J'onn J'onzz to win every time.
  • There's a great scene at a masquerade party at a faux Playboy mansion (Dave Thomas does his Bob Hope impression as the quasi-Hefner). There's also a number of poor DC hero costumes in the crowd. 
• Next is "Metamorphosis", where we meet Metamorpho, the Element Man (Tom Sizemore). Basically, he's a guy who can change himself into any element.
  • He's got his own supporting cast--Simon Stagg, the wealthy and deceitful industrialist who creates the aforementioned hero (Earl Boen); Java, Stagg's huge bodyguard (Richard Moll); Sapphire, Stagg's daughter and our hero's love interest (Danica McKellar).
  • There's a great train crash scene with GL trying to stop it--very dynamic. GL and Metamorpho are old Marine buddies.
  • The local police have rocket launchers in the car? I guess you would need it in the DCU.
  • In a nod to another DC character, Stagg accidentally creates a synthetic green monster that looks a lot like Chemo
• "The Savage Time" takes us into alternate history--where the Nazis win WW2. Of course, immortal villain Vandal Savage (Phil Morris) is the cause.
  • The "Nazis win WW2" bit is old hat to DC - they even had a separate Earth for it at one time
  • I guess they weren't allowed to have swastikas in the episode--they used a lightning bolt instead
  • Classic dialogue: Hawkgirl: "Who's hand is that?" Flash: "Sorry"
  • In this alternate timeline, Batman runs the resistance
  • To fix things, they go back to WW2, where we get a lot of great battle footage, on land and in the air--and cool mega-weapons created by Savage
  • In a great shot, we get - Hitler On Ice!
  • DC war heroes Sgt. Rock (Fred Dwyer) and Blackhawk (Robert Picardo) have cameos
  • We also meet Steve Trevor (Patrick Duffy), whom Wonder Woman saves and then falls in love, of course. After all is set right and they return to the present, she visits an old age home to meet Trevor again.
  • Of course, "setting things right" is relative, since Vandal Savage still was Fuehrer in WW2--at least for a while. Wouldn't someone in Germany had studied the fantastical weapons and duplicated them?

 JL biography: Green Lantern

• aka John Stewart, the Emerald Warrior 
• 1st appearance in the comics: Green Lantern #87 (1971)
• Ex-marine, architect
• Guardians of the Universe choose him as Hal Jordan's backup GL
• Powers: Magic ring lets him create green physical constructs and force fields, communicate with others, get info from a galactic database
• Voice Actor: Phil LaMarr
• Main events in the comics while the series was on the air (2001-04)
  • Member of JLA until it's dissolved due to the events in Identity Crisis
  • Shares GL duties patrolling Earth's sector with Hal Jordan

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.

Justice League Animated: More of Season One

Moving on...

• "The Brave and the Bold" teams up Flash and Green Lantern against Gorilla Grodd (played by Powers Boothe, a super-intelligent ape from a futuristic gorilla society--yeah, I know--it's comics)
  • We get a really great scene showcasing Flash's origin, his powers--and his wackiness. There's a huge number of Silver Age Flash comic book references included.
  • Flash is framed for a crime by Grodd, and GL tries to clear his name
  • The security chief of "Gorilla City" is Solovar (voiced by David Odgen Stiers), who helps out as well
  • Grodd takes over Central City (Flash's HQ) with his mind control, and threatens the Earth with nuclear weapons. In the end, Flash takes down Grodd, and the rest of the team takes out the weapons
  • Favorite line - "Flash--don't heckle the super-villain!"
• In "Fury", renegade Amazon Aresia (voiced by Julie Bowen) brings together a group of villains (Copperhead, Solomon Grundy, Shade, Star Sapphire, and Tsurkuri--created for the series) on a crime spree
  • There's a great scene with Diana in a mall, trying to figure out "man's world", then helping a woman out of a traffic problem
  • The crime spree is a ruse--she's getting components to build a "bio-weapon" to kill all men--the male League members are affected, so the gals take over
  • There's a Kosovo-type origin for the Amazon villain, which is why she's a manhater
  • Hawkgirl does some reconnaissance on Paradise Island, gets captured for her trouble, then teams up with them
  • Of course, the episode climaxes with a fight between Diana and Aresia
• In my favorite storyline from the first series, "Legends" sends four Leaguers into an alternate dimension--essentially Earth 2 from the comic books, where the Golden Age heroes form the 1940's live.
  • It's very bucolic--too bucolic...
  • There are too many Golden Age comic references to cover, but here goes...
    • We meet Tom Turbine, Green Guardsman, Streak, Catman, and Black Siren--The Justice Guild. They are from comic books John Stewart read as a kid.
    •  We also meet the bad guys--Music Master, Sportsman, Sir Swami, and Dr. Blizzard--The Injustice Guild
    • The reference to different Earths "vibrating at different speeds"
    • Sgt. O'Shaunessey is the local cop
    • They have a kid sidekick/mascot (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris)
    • The Leaguers are given Justice Guild decoder rings
    • The heroes break up into teams from both groups--just like the JLA/JSA team-ups
    • A villain disappears via a phone booth
    • "Holy Hijacking, Catman!" "I've got you, old chum"
    • Green Guardsman's ring has no power over aluminum
    • A bus full of nuns vs. a truck filled with TNT
    • A hot phone under glass
    • Puns, puns, puns
  • It turns out that the sidekick is a mutant who can control reality--the world was actually destroyed in a war. Rather like the Billy Mumy Twilight Zone episode where he wished people into the cornfield.
  • The Justice Guild gives their lives (again) to stop him. After a wacky episode, the end is rather poignant.
  • The episode was dedicated to Gardner Fox, the creator of the JSA and later the JLA

JL biography: Wonder Woman

• aka Diana Prince, Princess Diana, the Amazon Princess, 
• 1st appearance in the comics: All Star Comics #8, 1941
• Amazon queen makes figure out of clay, infused with powers of the Gods, puts on swimsuit to fight crime
• Powers: Powers of the Greek Gods, magic lasso, sex appeal
• Voice Actor: Susan Eisenberg
• Main events in the comics while the series was on the air (2001-04)
  • Diana visits Batman's city in "Gods of Gotham"
  • She goes for short hair in 2003--it doesn't last

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.

Justice League Animated: Season One Continues

For some reason, the Justice League DVD box set does not go precisely in series order--we'll go with the DVD order.

• It didn't take long to get to the Legion of Doom--"Injustice for All" brings us Lex Luthor and a whole group of bad guys
  • Lex is dying from cancer (he's been hanging on to kryptonite too long)
  • So he brings together Ultra-Humanite, Cheetah, Copperhead, Solomon Grundy, Shade, and Star Sapphire to destroy the League--Joker even joins in, who manages to take down Batman. I love Mark Hamill's Joker.
  • Even while tied up, Batman manages to get the bad guys to fight among each other, he seduces Cheetah, and pays off Ultra-Humanite to double-cross them
  • There's a Wonder Twins reference during a big fight
  • In the end, Luthor gets his battle suit which saves his life
• "Paradise Lost" showcases Wonder Woman, as she returns to Paradise Island.
  • Classic JL foe Felix Faust (voiced by Robert Englund) attacks, turning her Amazon sisters into stone. Per his modus operandi, he forces her to find magic trinkets.   
  • The intro includes a reference to "Hurricane Gardner" - ha!
  • The League forms small teams to collect the trinkets
  • Batman figures out the deal about Faust. There's a great shot where Flash plays with a trinket that explodes, Batman warns him to put it down, and the others quickly put back other items
  • We get a hieroglyphic-based history of the Amazons
  • Faust is double-crossed by Lord Hades (John Rhys-Davies), who does the same to him
  • In the end, WW is kicked out since she brought men to the island
• Superman and Martian Manhunter are taken prisoner on "War World"
  • Mongul, a 90's DC villain (played by Eric Roberts) is in charge, and runs gladiatorial games with the prisoners that are rather like a reality show--it's all scripted. It's the whole "bread and circuses" thing.
  • There's a B-story about GL and Hawkgirl searching for them, with a "good cop-bad cop" bit. There's also foreshadowing to their future relationship
  • Our heroes powers are being affected by the atmosphere there--this was an issue for Superman in the comics at the time, and considering how wimpy he is in this series, it's particularly bad
  • This is a "big message" episode about honor and heroism

JL biography: Batman

• aka Bruce Wayne, the Caped Crusader, The Dark Knight
• 1st appearance in the comics: Detective Comics #27, 1939
• Parents murdered, vows to avenge their deaths, buys lots of gadgets, builds a cool cave
• Powers: Money, paranoia, grimness
• Voice Actor: Kevin Conroy, who played the character from 1995 to today
• Main events in the comics while the series was on the air (2001-04)
  • Dark Knight Strikes Again, by Frank Miller
  • Jeff Loeb introduces Hush as a new Batman villain
  • The Gotham Central title is introduced, where Bats is just a die character--the GCPD are the stars

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.

Justice League Animated: The Series Begins

We're covering the first episodes of the Justice League animated series...

• We start with "Secret Origins". This is a pastiche of two DC stories (White Martians and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) with a dash of War of the Worlds, intended to introduce the team.
  • Love the "Snapper Carr" reference - he was the "mascot" of the original Silver Age JLA. Jason Marsden voiced the character.
  • It's established that the Martian menace is bigger than the World's Finest team can handle
  • Like most JL stories, the group splits up into teams to take out the bad guys. This never works--the teams get their butts kicked.
  • However, once the team is reunited, they take out the alien menace
  • We are also introduced to the JL Watchtower--the orbiting satellite HQ. It had already been used in the comics (JLA #4, 1997) as a base on the dark side of the moon, and a satellite predecessor goes back to the Silver Age (Justice League of America #78, 1970).
• "In Blackest Night" continues the cosmic theme you'll see a lot in the series. Green Lantern is captured by the Manhunters (big robots that predated the GL Corps--think space cops--in the comics) for the crime of destruction of a world.
  • This is a take on a large John Stewart story where he actually caused the destruction a world (Cosmic Odyssey).
  • Of course, it's a scam from classic JL villain Kanjar Ro (voiced by Rene Auberjonois).
  • We get a view of various GL Corps members--this may the first time we see them in animation
  • We also get the first appearance of the Javelin--their plane/spaceship, necessary since at least some of the members couldn't fly
  • The Guardians also appear--they're the GL Corps' bosses and immortal blue midgets
  • The Manhunters rebel as expected, but the League stops them in the end
• "The Enemy Below" introduces Aquaman (voiced by Scott Rummel) to the continuity. As in the comics at the time, he's essentially an eco-terrorist fighting the rest of the world. 
  • Superman seems to spend a lot of time on the series hanging out in the Javelin--why is he inside? It's like when he had the Supermobile.
  • Meanwhile, we see Batman--the only one without powers--showing up the rest of the team. Keep in mind Batman was the most popular character at the time (and arguably still is).
  • We also get an appearance by Deadshot, DC's sniper vigilante, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum (who also played the Flash). He takes the League on a merry chase. 
  • Aquaman is Mr. Hubris--he's duped by his brother Orm (this happens on a regular basis). We even get Aquaman chopping his hand off to save his son (I'm surprised he has any limbs left in the comics).

JL biography: Superman

• aka Kal-El, Clark Kent, Man of Steel, Man of Tomorrow, the Action Ace 
• 1st appearance in the comics: Action Comics #1, 1938
• Considered to be the start of the Golden Age
• A copy was sold in 2001 for $2.16M
• Last survivor of the planet Krypton (at least until Supergirl, Krypto, et al)
• Powers: Just about any with "Super" in front of it
• Voice Actor: George Newbern
• Main events in the comics while the series was on the air (2001-04)
  • Lex Luthor becomes President of the US (it doesn't last)
  • Superman: Return to Krypton storyline by Geoff Johns
  • Superman: Red Son graphic novel by Mark Millar - Baby Kal-el's rocket lands in Mother Russia 
  • Mark Waid's Birthright resets the Superman origin again
  • Superman / Batman series begins
  • Superman: True Brit one-shot by John Cleese

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.

Justice League Animated - Introduction

I've decided to go back to animation, and I just happened upon a great deal on Amazon for the Justice League complete series.

I previously covered Filmation's Aquaman in this blog. There were a few JL shorts during Aquaman and the New Adventures of Superman, but with the short length of the segments, you only got a few seconds with each hero. Oh, and the stories were insipid.

The 70's brought us Super-Friends (apparently, Hanna-Barbera thought Justice League was too complex a concept for kids to understand). It spawned several series into the 80's. I don't know if I can take that much Gleek and Marvin the Boy Wonder, so we'll skip that for now.

Warner Bros made a major push into doing their own television animation in the mid-80's, mostly due to their creation of Cartoon Network. Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) was introduced to capitalize on the huge success of the Tim Burton franchise, and several sequels followed. Once Superman: The Animated Series was introduced, it was only a matter of time before they would tackle the whole team. The new JL series was done in the same streamlined style that Bruce Timm introduced. Superman and Batman had already met in the continuity, but this was the first big teamup--and the first animated appearance for some of the heroes.

The initial team--we'll cover each in detail as we go:

• "The Trinity" - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman
• Flash (Wally West)
• Green Lantern (John Stewart)
• Hawkgirl
• Martian Manhunter

They really went all out on this show--impressive animation (at least at the time), great voice talent, intricate stories, and a generally somber mood--this is not your parent's Super-Friends.

We’ll cover both the JL series and Justice League Unlimited, where DC allowed WB Animation access to all the crayons in the box--the whole DC universe.

Unfortunately, Justice League is not on Netflix or Hulu, but the DVD box set is available on Amazon. 

Star Trek TNG: From Season 6 to Season 7

Let's "make it so"...

• Season 6 ends with another cliffhanger--"Descent". The Borg are back, but now they're not a collective--they are acting alone. Also, Data is exhibiting emotions--in this case, anger. The nexus for both of these events? Lore's back, and running his own Borg army. The situation is desperate enough to put Crusher in the big chair. It's a psychological drama more than a war story, with Data being swayed by the Borg and allying himself with Lore. There was also some audio problems with the episode on Netflix--sounded like a warped record.
• The cliffhanger is completed in the Season 7 premiere. Riker and Worf run into Hugh, the Borg Picard let go in an earlier episode--he's started a resistance movement against Lore. Crusher has her hands full with a Borg ship, and Data (under Lore's control) is about to experiment on LaForge. Of course, it's all resolved in the end, and Data gets the emotion chip--but doesn't want it (at least until we get to the TNG films). The two-parter includes an interesting cameo--Stephen Hawking as a hologram of himself playing poker.
• Picard on a shuttle? That never goes well. In "Liasions", the Enterprise is running an exchange program with an alien race. The shuttle taking Picard to the alien's world crashes, and a mysterious woman (Barbara Williams) saves him. Unfortunately, it turns into the TNG equivalent of "Misery", but ends up being an alien experiment. There's also a wacky B-story about how Troi and Worf handle their exchange partners on the ship. They must have needed a cheaper episode after the two parter--the planet surface is "Planet Hell", a set they rarely used in later seasons since it looks like paper-mache and styrofoam.
• Geordi is experimenting with a teleprescence probe to be used in dangerous situations, and ends up in an "Interface" with his missing mother. Is he seeing her or not? Of course, it ends up being an alien trying to return to their home. Lots of technobabble in this episode. Ben Vereen cameos as Geordi's father.

We'll continue with the final season of TNG next time. Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix.

Star Trek TNG: Even More Season 6

Let's go...

• In "Lessons", Picard falls in love with the ship's new stellar cartographer (Wendy Hughes). Most of the episode is "slice of life" until he's forced to put her in danger as part of an away mission. It's strange that we never heard of stellar cartography or who worked there until this episode--and I doubt we'll hear of it (or her) again. "No beach to walk on..."
• Picard's archaeology "hobby" is put to the test in "The Chase". His old professor shows up and is then murdered, so the Enterprise continues his mysterious mission. They find a message from an ancient civilization, including a sci-fi audition scene for young actors.
• In "Frame of Mind", Riker is in a play about being an insane murderer, then he is an insane murderer in an alien asylum, then he's back on the ship. It's like TNG meets Inception. Frakes really gets a chance to do some ACTING in this episode. Doesn't Crusher have some medical stuff to do, instead of directing plays?
• Speaking of Crusher, she gets a chance to lead an episode in "Suspicions". It's all a flashback to a murder mystery that strips her of her medical career--of course, it all turns out OK in the end. There's a lot of voiceover from McFadden in the episode. It seemed like an old fashioned TV drama--not a very modern writing technique.
• More Klingon mumbo-jumbo in "Rightful Heir". Worf has a crisis of faith in Kahless, until he meets him in person. Alan Oppenheimer plays one of the Klingons--his resume goes back to 1961, and has guested on too many series to list. He's also prolific in voiceovers--you know him as Skeletor on He-Man.
• "Because they're Rikers...identical Rikers all the way...". We've made it to the inevitable "twin" episode "Second Chances"--in this case, a transporter technobabble accident creates two Rikers, one of which was trapped on a planet for 8 years. Lt. Riker is still in love with Troi (as if Cmdr. Riker isn't). I love how the producers showed off how the RIkers could interact--no more obvious line in the background.
• Things get what The Doctor would call "timey-wimey" for Picard, LaForge, Data, and Troi in "Timescape". Time freezes, goes backward, slows down, and there's technobabble aplenty. The ship's shuttle appears to be infected by the TARDIS--it's a lot bigger on the inside than the exterior would indicate.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix--more to come!

Star Trek TNG: More Season Six

Onward...

• More holodeck hijinks in "Ship in a Bottle".  Moriarty is back--he leaves holo-London and walks on the ship. Barclay let him out--has anyone in the 24th century ever heard of passwords? The whole episode becomes a matrushka doll of holodecks within holodecks.
• We get a weird film noir / creepy alien hybrid in "Aquiel". There's been a murder on a remote station, and Geordi gets romantically involved with the main suspect (Renee Jones). The actual murderer is a blobby alien that takes the form is whatever it touches. Geordi--will you ever learn?
• Troi is in a tough spot in "Face of the Enemy"--she's been kidnapped, altered to look Romulan, and is acting as an intelligence officer on a Romulan ship. She doesn't know whom to trust. Then the Enterprise gets involved. We learn a bit more about Romulan society in the episode, but it seems to end very abruptly.
• Picard plays Quantum Leap in "Tapestry". He get a chance (via Q) to relive the event that gave him an artificial heart. The critical event surrounds a 24th century bumper pool game--I love how the designers come up with concepts like this. Picard keeps his heart, but is now a lieutenant--he ended up playing it too safe. Q lets him do a reset.
• We complete the Klingon saga with the two-part "Birthright". As always, Klingon stories are very complicated, so I won't go into detail. Basically, Worf learns that his father may be alive on a prison planet and goes there to find out. Blah-blah-blah, honor, duty, family, repeat. The more interesting story involves the first crossover with DS9 (apart from the other show's pilot). Data, Geordi, and Dr. Bashir run an experiment that accidentally causes Data to "dream", so he goes in search of its meaning. It gets really trippy--Spiner get a chance to do some real ACTING. We also get some pretty shots of the Enterprise inside and out during his "dreams'.
• Picard has quite the adventure during otherwise routine maintenance of the ship in "Starship Mine". The Enterprise is evacuated during a radiation sweep, but there's terrorists, and he's on his own. It's very much like a standard action movie--Die Hard with Earl Grey Hot! There's also a great B-story with Data outdoing an annoying official at a reception--Spiner really milks the part. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix--more to come!

Hogan's Heroes - Part 25: The Conclusion

We've made it to the finish line--here are the final six episodes!

• It's "Klink for the Defense"--his first case involves a Nazi traitor with secret plans, and Hogan wants them. The opposing council is Burkhalter, so that won't go well. I noticed that Dawson's role in the final season has really been beefed up--he's getting a lot of screen time.
• Nita Talbot makes her last appearance as Russian spy Marya in "The Kamikases are Coming". She shows up with a new rocket, and wants Hogan to steal it for her. They wheel the rocket on a cart through the camp (?!?), then fire it out of the recreation hall (?!?!?!?). The actual firing looks like it came out of a HO scale train set. 
• Yet another general parachutes near Stalag 13--this time played by Johnny Haymer--and the boys have to get him out. Meanwhile, Burkhalter's sister Gertrude (Kathleen Freeman) is back, this time with a fiancee (Lee Bergere), who's going to be Klink's adjutant. There's also Klink's "girlfriend" (actually an underground agent) played by Leslie Parrish. In the end, the agent stops the wedding, the general is sent off, and "Kommandant Gertrude" is hooked up with Klink again.
• Have the Gestapo finally caught up to Hogan? A rogue officer (Malachi Throne) is convinced of Hogan's guilt, so Hogan has to throw him off the track. A party in town, a disguise, and a Field Marshall (John Hoyt) does the trick in "Hogan's Double Life".
• It's wintertime at Stalag 13, and the boys are conscripted to shovel snow. If they succeed, Nazi tanks will take out an Allied offensive. The other choice--cause an avalanche to block the pass. How? The boys have a jam session in "Look at the Pretty Snowflakes". Crane was a drummer in real life, so it seems like the episode was written around him.
• We wind up the series with "Rockets or Romance". There's a rocket launcher being stationed in Stalag 13 (again?), so Hogan partners with a beautiful agent (Marlyn Mason, in her second appearance) to take it out. They hang out at a cabin while the boys use an electromagnet to take out out the rocket.

Well, that's it--this turned into quite a slog near the end. Coming up next, we're going back to animation. 

I hope you played along! If not, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.

Hogan's Heroes - Part 24

We're close to the finish line...

• LaBeau in one of his many former lives was a fortune teller--or at least that's the scam in "The Gypsy". There's a scene in the barracks with a fake rainstorm outside--it sounds like they had to "loop" all the dialogue.
• German scientists become "The Dropouts" so they can escape to England. Semi-regulars John Stephenson and Ben Wright play the scientists. Hogan and the boys give them a hand, along with Hochstedder (unknowingly, via his car trunk). I love how the cast knows a lot about atomic bombs prior to the end of the war.
• Burkhalter gets Hogan to steal a P-51 fighter-bomber from England for $1M in "Easy Come, Easy Go". It starts with a party including Cynthia Lynn (Klink's first secretary in a cameo), and ends with the capture of Nazi spies. Klink goes along for the ride. There's a great process shot through a window--it's like they're showing The History Channel outside.
• For the five hundredth time, a spy comes into Stalag 13 as a supposed prisoner. This time, Hogan and the boys double-cross him, take his place at a big Nazi meeting, then scam him into thinking he's in Berlin, so he can divulge his contact there. There's a great bit from Dawson and Hovis playing a German family on the phone, and another where they play Hitler and his secretary. It's all in "The Meister Spy".
• An master spy for the Allies needs penicillin to save his life, so what can Hogan and the boys do? Have Newkirk dress as a woman and go to a Nazi tea party, of course. They use him as a courier to get the penicillin out--"That's No Lady, That's My Spy".  We finally get to meet Mrs. Burkhalter (Diana Chesney), while 60's TV mainstay Alice Ghostley plays another of the women.
• Ruta Lee makes her third Hogan appearance--this time as a spy. A Nazi wanting to get out of the Russian Front blackmails Hogan, so he brings her in to convince Klink to swap places, so that the boys can take a peek at secret papers. Of course, they also double-cross the Nazi. That complicated enough for you? It's "To Russia Without Love". There's a crash scene that's practically "F-Troopian". 

Remember, you can play along! The DVD box set is available on Amazon.

QISE Review - Day 16

The final total for hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through the Closing Ceremony - 446 hours of QISE coverage. 

• Usain Bolt looked like he had to actually push to win the anchor leg of the 4x100m relay. Previously, he seemed to coast at the end.
• What in the world is the women's modern pentathlon? Well, it's pistol shooting, fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a cross-country run. Sounds like good training for the CIA or MI6. "Modern" is relative--it was first run in 1912. The big change is that the running and shooting are done together--a snowless biathlon.
• NBC has really taken advantage of the graphic overlay tech first designed for football. An example is the Javelin--they show where the current gold/silver/bronze distances are, along with QISE/world record distances.
• Sunday seems to be rerun day--like the men's Basketball "victory"
• They also had time tonight to air a 90-minute review show prior to the Closing Ceremony, which pushes the Closing Ceremony back past 11a EST.
• Speaking of that--The Closing Ceremony has become this weird hybrid of pop concert/fashion show/moshpit/light show/Cirque de Soleil event. It's like the Super Bowl halftime show on crack.
  • I suspect I would enjoy it far more if I was on powerful hallucinogens
  • Winston Churchhill as a Laugh-In character, popping out of a building--huh
  • Batman and Robin an exploding car--double huh
  • The Pet Shop Boys, dressed like--erasers? origami? traffic cones?
  • Ladies and gentlemen--STOMP!
  • Guys in blue with light bulbs on their heads--a TARDIS tribute?
  • Russell Brand is no singer--and he's in the wrong key
  • A phrase I never thought I'd say--"Oh no, the Rolls Royce is going to back into the inflatable octopus!"
  • The worst kept secret was the Spice Girls reunion--looked like 5 soccer moms on top of taxis
  • Finally, after 16 days, the UK's greatest accomplishment: a Monty Python tribute. Eric Idle and a cast of thousands singing "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life"
  • A writhing half-naked woman screaming on stage, followed by the national anthem of Greece--sounds about right
  • After the flag handoff, we get the Rio presentation with all the Brazilian celebrities like--um--that guy and the girl with the hair. Oh, and Pele.
  • What describes the QISE spirit better than The Who singing "Teenage Wasteland"? 
• Final thoughts--
  • Overall, I think Kabletown did a decent job. I know there was a lot of criticism about the tape delays, but I'm not sure what else they could do with the time difference. If you wanted to see events live, they were all available via online/mobile (assuming you had cable). You got far more coverage than ever before, even without the online component. If I had more tuners in the DVR, I could have generated a much higher number of hours.
  • Speaking of online, the site and video quality were excellent, even on mobile. This also shows that YouTube (the actual tech behind it) is ready from a technical standpoint to provide a pseudo-cable experience (of course, the content providers won't want to annoy their cable overlords and/or actual owners, so it will never happen).
  • As always, NBC is too jingoistic with all the "USA! USA!" stuff. If you wanted a more balanced view, watch the online coverage.

That wraps it up--hope you enjoyed my comments and QISE in general.  I'll do this again for Sochi and Rio (hopefully with a better DVR setup).

QISE Review - Day 15

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Saturday--418 hours so far.

• The 4x400m relay had two big stories:
  • The US losing for the first time in 60 years, partly due to Manteo Mitchell's injury--a broken leg--during the previous round
  • Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee from South Africa, running in the final
• What's the deal with bringing Jimmy Fallon into QISE coverage, just so he can do a bit?  I don't see Leno doing Headlines in London.
• Controversy in the women's Hammer Throw--Germany's Betty Heidler was given an eighth place finish based on a faulty measurement, but was eventually given the bronze when the judge figured out the mistake. The difference was in terms of several feet--how do you make that big a mistake in front of the world stage?
• Race-walking is Britain's tribute to Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks.
• Is the penultimate night of the QISE quiet? Well, they had time to show a Tom Brokaw tribute to the British Greatest Generation. I thought I tuned into the History Channel.

The final day of QISE is yet to come.

QISE Review - Day 14

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Friday--393 hours so far. 

• If you were wondering what high tech method NBC uses to show the diving events--a guy drops a camera down a track at the same time the diver drops. 
• The BMX Cycling event is not just EXTREME, it's insane--8 bikes going down the same narrow track at once. It's like NASCAR with bicycles--you're watching it for the crashes. I assume this event will be pulled off the QISE schedule when someone is killed.
• Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show--"Explain the difference between the Triple Jump and the Long Jump". Well, I believe there are 3 jumps involved.
• Ryan Seacrest is going to co-host the Closing Ceremony with Costas? It's the battle of the midgets.
• Oh boy, the US Basketball team is going to the gold medal match. The millionaire professionals are beating the poor amateur players--they must be very proud.
• I'm glad the volleyball audience is taking the event so seriously. In attendance were Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible, and a gorilla. Someone cleaned out a London costume shop.

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 13

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Thursday--370 hours so far.

• How do you make a 10 second event like the 100m hurdles last 10 minutes? Include an "up close and personal" report on the American plus an interview afterwards.
• I didn't see why there was such excitement about the beach volleyball win for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings--the expected winners won.  Woo?
• The Synchronized Swimming team competition seems particularly silly--it's like a parody of itself. A competitor at some point decided that smiling during the routine was a good idea--now they all have to plaster ghastly grins on their faces. It's like they released Joker venom into the water.

 More to come.

QISE Review - Day 12

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Wednesday--346 hours so far.

• Finishing out gymnastics
  • The commentators noted that the Chinese in their training have their girls stand on tip toe on the Balance Beam for five minutes, and simulate the lighting at the actual event. Any reason the US can't do that, or are they too busy checking their make-up?
  • The thrill of--paperwork? Aly Raisman got the bronze on Balance Beam after an inquiry was made. I love how the coach had to beg for a pen in order to fill out the form--for lack of a nail...
  • Of course, Raisman made up for it with a gold in the Floor Exercise
• It's fun when an athlete doesn't follow the narrative NBC came up with before the games. Lolo Jones from the 100m hurdles was to follow a) athlete overcomes adversity, wins or b) athlete is gracious about losing. Instead, on the Today show, she chose c) athlete whines and cries about losing.
• It's QISE TO THE EXTREME with the BMX Cycling event--clearly trying to bring in a bit of the X-Games audience

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 11

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Tuesday--321 hours so far.

• I'm really leaning on the fast forward button to get through all the coverage--thank goodness for handball, volleyball, water polo...
• Gymnastics notes
  • I find the uneven bars event to be much more fun if you make comedy "I'm out of control" noises while they do it (whoa--WHOOA--whoo)
  • NBC, in an attempt to make the scoring more comprehensible, added "stoplights" (red/yellow/greed) next to the score. Unfortunately, they don't set them consistently, so the commentators need to explain it anyway
  • Another performance by Viktoria Komova, the "Crying Russian". When she finished an event, it looked like someone had just kicked her puppy.
  • "Boy did I get that wrong" - Tim Daggett, when Arthur Zanetti of Brazil won the rings event after he had just talked about another competitor winning in a repeat
• Kirani James is why the QISE exists. First medal winner ever from Grenada (Gold in the 400m sprint), and a class act--he traded name tags with Oscar Pistorius after their heat.
• What did TV use to fill up QISE coverage before Beach Volleyball? The "uniforms" they wear can only keep your attention for so long.

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 10

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Monday--293 hours so far.

• First off, my notes this week will most likely be truncated. I had the chance to be on a staycation last week, so I had plenty of time to review the coverage. I'm back to work now, so I'll compress my reviews into a few hours each night.
• After the nightly Tivo reboot, I finished up last night's coverage. I'm getting tired of this, as I am of the gymnastics theme they keep playing (dum-dum-dum-de-dum).
• They also dug up the "Matrix" effect so they could show the gymnastic vaults in 360 degrees
• The 4 stages of grief for NBC gymnastics - "She's absolutely going to win", "Absolutely shocking", "Stunning gold", "This truly is unbelievable"
• The Canada-US soccer match went all the way to the end of second extended time period to finish up.  I managed to see most of it, including the final score by the US.
• Mary Carillo had another fascinating background piece on England tonight--this one covered the Greenwich Meridian Line and the British observatory there. NBC News should use her--or I'm sure they need analysts for the NBC Sports Network?

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 9

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Sunday--265 hours so far.

• Another day, another Tivo overnight crash. At least I caught it earlier this time.
• Back at Track and Field--in a bit of British whimsy, a mini-Mini Cooper RC car is used to return the discuses (disci?) back to the starting point
• Clearly, the home team advantage in QISE is real--how else would you explain how Murray dismantled Federer in men's tennis?
• NBC prepped the audience for tonight's women's gymnastics with a short film on Olga Korbut. You can't overestimate how her performance in the 1972 Muinch games transformed the sport.
• I can't separate the synchronized swimming event from the SNL film with Shearer, Short, and Guest (see the video above--we'll see how long before Kabletown pulls it). NBC has added a camera trick to show the competitors above and below the water at the same time, which helps a lot.
• I'm wondering how QISE events are scheduled--in some cases, they are stacked on top of each other, while others have days between them. For example, Murray had an hour between his singles and mixed doubles gold medal tennis matches (each of which take hours to complete), while synchronized swimming has a day scheduled between their 2 1/2 minute routines.
• Prime time begins with a 30 minute interview between Costas and Phelps. Much of this was shown last night, so I'm guessing that NBC assumed the 7-8p block would be soft in terms of ratings.
• I think the whole evening is lacking for major events--perhaps why we also get a Mary Carillo report on James Bond (followed by a Skyfall ad--it's all about synergy).

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 8

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Saturday--235 hours so far.

• Speaking of the Tivo--another crash last night, about 10 minutes after I stopped for the night. Got it working again this morning, but I missed the last 90 minutes from prime time, plus late night and early NBCSN coverage. So, what did I miss?
  • The women's 800m freestyle swimming final, with 15-tear old US swimmer Ali Ledecky taking the gold. USA Today reported that NBC cut away to commercials during the 8 minute event.
  • Men's trampoline was also scheduled last night, so I'll have to go online to see it.
• Mary Carillo is doing double duty--late night host and tennis play-by-play this morning. Of course, the latter was a quick gig, based on the Willliams-Sharapova match.
• I got a chance to try out the NBC "Live Extra" app while out at a restaurant. Running a Galaxy Nexus on 4G, the video from various events was excellent, and the app response was quite snappy. 
• The Chinese gymnastics team is not doing well--their women's trampoline star screwed up at the end of her routine, giving Rosannagh Maclennan of Canada the win (Canada's first gold of the games).
• A first for the games today--Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, a double amputee, competed in the 400m sprint with his "cheetah blades", getting past the first round. There's still a debate over whether his "disability" helps or hurts him--but since the QISE committee okayed it, more power to him.
• I watched what appears to be a parody event--sprint track cycling. Two cyclists ride as slowly as they can, watching the other constantly, then pedal as fast as they can at the end--the important thing is not the time, but who wins.  Guatemalan Erick Barrondo won the silver--the first medal ever for Guatemala. 
• John McEnroe, an analyst for NBC, was sporting a wardrobe from the "Russian Mobster" collection today...
• You could tell that NBC's Track and Field analyst Ato Boldon had the phrase "The Pryce is Right" locked and loaded months ago in anticipation of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's win in the women's 100m dash
• Michael Phelps' QISE finale--hyperbolic much?

More to come.

QISE Review - Day 7

Running total hours recorded on my Tivo, starting with the Opening ceremony through midnight Friday--210 hours so far.

• Ryan Lochte is not a great public speaker, if his interviews on NBC are any judge.
• So the gymnastics score goes out to a thousandth of a point, but when a tie still occurs, one person gets the medal and the other doesn't? I guess those medals are too expensive to just hand out to anyone.
• I would hate to be one of the shot put judges--you're constantly avoiding heavy objects. I guess it's better than the javelin.
• There's another apparent gaffe from NBC involving promos--although in this case someone is overreacting. Costas was talking about Gabby Douglas's win, and then a promo was shown for the upcoming "Animal Practice" series. The promo includes a monkey on gymnastics rings. I can see the potential slight, but I doubt NBC intended it.
• There hasn't been a lot to cover today--maybe that's why NBC decided to start prime time with a two-part film piece on the "Magnificent 7" gymnastics team from 1996.
• I continue to be impressed by Missy Franklin--not only for her swimming performance, but for the fact that she has rejected all endorsements so she can stay on her high school (and soon college) swim teams.

More to come.