Apr
13
I was late to the party for “V.” It was only last year that I watched Kenneth Johnson’s original 2-part mini-series and loved every Marc Singer-filled minute of it. The concept of fascist lizard people taking over Earth by winning hearts and minds rather than blowing up famous buildings is a clever approach to the sci-fi genre. However, due to “creative differences” (i.e. the network wanted things done on the cheap), Johnson wasn’t involved with the misnomered 3-part sequel, “V: The Final Battle,” nor “V: The Series” that lasted only a single, merciful season.
It seemed serendipitous that “V: The Second Generation” hit bookstores only months after I’d become a creepily obsessed fan. Along with all the incarnations of the TV show on DVD, I also proudly own a Visitor doll as well as the 17-part DC Comics series. I even picked up my copy of the novel at a book signing Kenneth Johnson attended; he misspelled my name when he made his autograph out to me, but whatever.
“V: The Second Generation” jettisons (or “retcons,” if you will) the events of “The Final Battle” and “The Series” and picks up some twenty years after the original two-part epic. The Human Resistance have failed to prevent the Visitors from nearly draining our oceans. Scientists — the community whom the Visitors feel are the greatest threat to their occupation — are force to live in ghettos. Young people are encouraged to become Teammates, a sort of Visitor version of the Hitler Youth Movement. And half-breeds (or “dregs”), offspring of humans and Visitors, make up a sort of permanent underclass; Johnson thankfully discards the whole “Star Child” nonsense that was introduced after his departure from the series.
A plot thread that was discarded from the television series after Johnson’s departure — the distress call the Resistance sent to an alien race that’s also at war with the Visitors — is finally paid off in the novel with the introduction of the Zedti. Three of their kind, each having evolved from a different insect species, make contact with the Resistance and join their cause. But soon there’s a lurking fear that the Zedti may not have the best interests of the human race at heart.
Unlike the mini-series, the book doesn’t have to contend with Broadcast Standards & Practices, so there’s plenty of graphic violence, adult language and human-on-lizard sex. It’s war, after all. War isn’t TV-PG.
“V: The Second Generation” is a solid follow-up to Johnson’s original vision. It’s a shame that many fans of “V” have had to wait 20 years to see it. Incidentally, I only had to wait a few short months. Maybe it’s best to be late for the party.
-Brad Lohan
Apr
12
Staying Home on “Prom Night”
Filed Under Movies | 2 Comments
PG-13 horror. A contradiction in terms if there ever was one. Yet the multiplexes are lousy with PG-13 horror flicks of late, the most recent being this weekend’s completely unnecessary “Prom Night” regurgitation.
For those of you with lives and don’t already know, the PG-13 rating came about in the mid-’80s. Steven Spielberg’s heart-rendering “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Joe Dante’s Christmas creature feature “Gremlins” (produced by Spielberg) stunned family audiences with their levels of on-screen violence. But because there was nary an “f-word” or a breast to spice up the carnage, both films were rated a mild PG.
Under fire for his splatter flicks posing as family fare, Spielberg appealed to the MPAA for a new rating — something that would come between PG and R. And PG-13 (”Parents strongly cautioned!”) was born. The rating essentially made PG meaningless, since even the G-rated “Planet of the Apes” has some mild profanity, bloody violence and man-ass. But there’s never been a large degree of consistency as far as film ratings go.
PG is the middle child of the ratings system. To paraphrase Tyler Durden, it “has no purpose or place.” PG-13 is the new black. That being said, PG-13 movies today are about as toothless as your average PG-rated family film from 25 years ago. PG-13 movies are just PG movies with a phony ID. They want to seem more grown up, but their fake beards aren’t fooling anyone.
Here we see the paradox of a PG-13 “horror” movie. A genuine horror film should have to be resubmitted to the MPAA at least a half-dozen times to finally get its rating changed from NC-17 to slightly de-fanged R. The only thing that’s scary about “Prom Night” is its intended audience: giggling, texting, seat-kicking adolescents. They don’t want to be scared, and if they’re actually seeing a remake of the crashing bore that is the original “Prom Night,” they don’t even really want to be entertained. They’re there for no reason whatsoever — not unlike PG-13 horror films.
Apr
10
Randi Rhodes Quits Air America
Filed Under Radio | 2 Comments
One of the most distinctive voices on progressive talk radio, Randi Rhodes, quit Air
America Radio today after she’d been suspended for calling presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a “f—ing whore” at an event sponsored by the station. In other news, Barack Obama will be delivering the second most important speech in his political career in which he’ll address Ms. Rhodes’ anti-prostitution statements because it is fast becoming his job to apologize for everything that’s ever happened — ever.
Randi’s landed at Nova M Radio, a station I couldn’t be more unfamiliar with. If the station’s not owned by Clear Channel — a media giant that I believe has opened gateways into parallel dimensions just to buy up their airwaves — it’s probably just some guy in his basement with a HAM radio. That being said, Air America’s so much the poorer for alienating one of the few stalwarts from the net’s early days.
Now, was what Ms. Rhodes said about Senator Clinton untoward? Sure. But John McCain’s said worse things about his own wife, and no one’s suspended his lopsided mug from television. As a representative of Air America, I suppose Randi could’ve dialed down the f-bombs and accusations of whoring at the event, or at least smashed every techno-twerp’s digital camera and cell phone, like any sane person should these days. But alas, she finally had her Michael Richards / George Allen / Reverend Wright YouTube moment.
If Andy Warhol were alive today, he’d revise his “fifteen minutes of fame” quote to something like, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for losing their job because somebody posted their hate speech on the Intertubes.”
At any rate, noon-3 pm won’t be the same without Randi. Now if only Hillary would say something offensive, maybe we can get her to quit and find a job somewhere else, too. Might I suggest Air America?