“STAY-CATIONS” — what a mind-numbing word. So much for the imagination of journalists.

So what have I been doing for the last two weeks? Racking up over a thousand kilometers on my car (SOB!), chauffering my mother and my visiting Polish cousins around the province…busy being tourists (not extinct yet) & flying in the face of current vacation-rationing trends.

That’s a lot of gas money, I’ll have you know. ;-)

Still, because all of the doom-and-gloom about tourism is actually TRUE, I’m not likely to be going anywhere for the rest of the summer. Perhaps a short road trip sometime in August…but other than that, I must wait until Japan comes calling in March 2009 before I once again break free of the continent.

In other words, I’m going to be in massive, addictive need for further reading material this summer…starting with a refresh copy of the graphic novel Watchmen — a graphic novel that re-wrote the rules about comics. A work of literature (yes, literature!) that sits comfortably on various “100 best reads of the century” lists…

…which is now harder to find than the lost city of Atlantis, after the movie trailer played just before the showing of The Dark Knight. Every comic store, ever Chapters, every Indigo I’ve been to visit…NOTHING! This has completely irritated me. All these new trendy comic readers coming out of the woodwork…when I was there when the actual comic came out in 1986!

Ok, at the time, I was too busy re-reading my issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths, but that’s a geeky-youth story for another day… :D

“Soon enough, Jayson would be on his way to Hollywood. He would escape all of this small town nothingness. The petty domestic dramas. His insufferable unpopularity. The strangers who would stare at his strange clothes and strange brother and strange mother in the A&P.”

This is a book that will be most appreciated by those people of my generation — anyone who remembers growing up in the pop culture universe between 1978 and 1985.

A world of Atari games, Betamax cameras & tapes, Three’s Company and Laverne & Shirley — a world where people would understand references to “the third Chrissy”. A world of Chevy Citations and Ford Mavericks. A world before child stars fell hard back to Earth. A world that didn’t yet have a name for AIDS. A world of drugs and sex, hid behind childlike innocence.

This is the world of Candy Everybody Wants. It’s actually a simple story of a boy’s coming out: sexually, artistically, and emotionally. It’s a story about his rag-tag family and friends, his escape from a small town to the big city (New York, naturally), and cold splashes of water that time and again offer sobriety to his occasionally self-centred dreams.

Nothing we haven’t seen before, but this time, definitely worth the read. For two simple reasons:

(1) The entire story is written as a hybrid sitcom. Our protagonist — Jayson (with a “y” for extra flair) relates all of his experiences and situations to what he has consumed from the television of the early 1980s: a time when TV was entering the final phase of the golden age of sitcoms…slowly giving way to prime-time mega-soaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. The trick is that real life constantly gets in the way, forcing Jayson to realize that the sitcom world and the real world are constantly at war. It does so with blistering amounts of humour, dazzling wit and wordplay, and scenes that alternate between joyful enthusiasm and staggering poignancy. In short, this is a book that revels in the (often brilliantly profane) language that results from the conflict between fantasy media & cold, hard reality.

(2) The pop culture of the time infuses everything. It’s a living, breathing time capsule that spoke to me so powerfully, it might as well have been a pristine VHS tape of random events from my own 1980s childhood. Brand names, TV characters, specific magazines, knowing parodies of famous actors of the time…my head was shaking from the memory assault. There are also ominous references to events yet to come…occasionally buried with insidious dexterity.

I honestly don’t know how anyone younger than 30 is going to react to this novel. I’m sure they will thoroughly enjoy it, but the layers of historical melancholy that permeate the action will speak (and DID speak) volumes to anyone of my generation. Part love letter, part requiem, all heart. Candy Everybody Wants was a book I burned through in 3 hours. Now that I’m finished, I want to go back and read it again.

It’s one way of reliving childhood memories of that time, short of watching my Dallas DVD’s. ;-)

Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer

Directed by Christopher Nolan

“You crossed the line first, sir. You hammered them…and in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand. Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

OK…let’s get some of the fluffy requirements out of the way first…

COMPLAINT #1

The film is (ever-so-slightly) TOO long. About 20 minutes could have been trimmed in various places, which would have increased the pace beyond the speed of light, yet maintained the intensity and the integrity of the film.

COMPLAINT #2

Rachel still doesn’t quite do it for me as a character. Maggie Gyllenhaal is better in the role than Katie Holmes…but her chemistry with both Aaron Echhart & Christian Bale isn’t exactly scorching.

COMPLAINT #3

Bale’s Batman voice remains…odd…and there’s still no hummable, iconic theme tune.

Other than that, this is near-mathematical PERFECTION. From the late Heath Ledger’s astonishing performance as the Joker, and going down from there…no other mistake was made to bring us this masterpiece of drama. And make no mistake…this IS drama. Shocking, brilliant, twisted, magnificent drama. The kind of drama that is worth the (expensive) price of admission to a modern movie theatre.

Which leads me to the rest of this critique. I could go on and on about why I enjoyed The Dark Knight. Instead, I’m going to take a different road: the reason recent DC Comics films are so much more satisfying than their Marvel Comics counter-parts.

In the Marvel movie universe, they have refined the popcorn movie into high art. All three Spider-Mans, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and (from all I’ve heard, and its box office results) Iron Man have followed an colourful action-adventure format, with a few washes of emotions…with a very hit-and-miss approach to the latter element.

All Marvel attempts to reach for something more…something deeper, and more resonant, have fallen victim to various failures. The first two brilliant X-Men films degenerated into a third and final runaround of bloated cliches and shoot-em-up bangs and flashes. The original 2003 version of The Hulk ended up being far too psychologically deep and dark for its audience. Since then, Marvel has stuck to its more successful popcorn format. Successful & a hell of a good time…but not exactly earth-shattering. The string of disappointments (Daredevil, The Punisher, Elektra, Ghost Rider, even Spider-Man 3’s critical mauling) speak as loudly as the successes.

On the other hand, since 2005, DC has taken advantage of the fact that it owns, as comics and graphic novelist extraordinaire Frank Miller himself states, the iconic GODS of the comic universe. There is Superman, there is Batman, and there is Wonder Woman. Everyone else falls somewhere below…

These characters are mythic: archetypes that have resonated over generations, and become part of the pop culture in a way only Spiderman has managed to achieve from the Marvel universe of characters. The DC gods represent all the best and worst facets of humanity, and they offer a canvas far deeper and far more interesting than most of the Marvel line-up, the X-Men aside (at least, when directed by Bryan Singer).

Batman Begins set the tone in 2005 - it wasn’t a kids movie. It’s an adult drama, epic in scope, epic in emotional resonance, and set Batman as the god of the human underworld. All our fears, phobias, and base emotions…wrapped up in a black cowl and haunting the streets, fighting the darkness with an even greater darkness.

Superman Returns presented the flip-side in 2006. Whereas Batman is needed but unwelcome - even despised - by the ambivalent people he protects, Superman returns like an eagle descending from heaven. The god of light and power, the protector of all that is good and pure: in short, the saviour. Everyone wants him, yet their equally-fearful awe keeps him at a distance…and leaves behind the uncomfortable question of whether human destiny should be left in the hands of such super beings.

This trend intensifies in The Dark Knight. The world Batman defends is now the world Batman has created. It has spawned a terrible beast (in the form of the psychotic Joker) that takes advantage of his new rules by ignoring them…and daring the gods to play along or be swept aside. At the same time, the everyday citizens of Gotham try to control their destiny as best as they can, in the shadow of a battle between demons and dark gods they can only barely comprehend. The Marvel Comics universe doesn’t even come close to achieveing this Tolkein-esque depth that the DC gods offer to the audience. Certainly, no Marvel film comes close to the moment on the river ferries, where two separate human decisions validate Batman’s faith in the citizens of Gotham, in spite of the hell in which they find themselves.

The Dark Knight is not a movie to bring children to watch. This is a movie that explores the raw, unhinged power of darkness, depression, shattered dreams, and madness. It takes the everyday paranoia of terrorist threats, fears of crime & human weakness, and twists it like a sponge, squeezing out every last drop of black gold from such story potential. It’s a movie filled with actors who embrace & dance with its tragic-yet-uplifting depths of operatic & Jacobean potential. It has a writer/director with such a powerful, clear vision that the rhythms of the film literally pulse from the screen.

DC made its choice. It has chosen to reach for depth, for art, for something that is worthy of the iconic characters that lead the roster of its fictional universe. With The Dark Knight, they have easily gone 3 for 3 over the last three years. All that needs to happen now is for a film to reflect the team up & astonishing friendship between its two god-like characters (as shown in its most popular comic - Superman/Batman) and I may very well die happy.

The film … 9.5

The DC renaissance … 10+

Yes, that’s me, on the sands of Rotary Cove Beach in Goderich, Ontario…relaxing. NOT blogging.

So sue me. :D If it makes you feel better, THIS is what I was reading. At least I’m consistent.

It’s been years since I’ve made it to a beach on Lake Huron, but having visiting cousins from Poland makes for a good tourist excuse to visit (once again).

Now that I’m rested (and sunburnt yet again), we’re off to see The Dark Knight this evening. Stay tuned for a review…soon. ;-)

When you live in Ontario, you take for granted many of the sights and sounds that overseas visitors are dying to see. The last few days have allowed me to explore places I haven’t been to in years, and witness some massive changes. Niagara Falls in particular is not the cheesy tourist attraction I recall from my childhood. In fact, it’s become quite cosmopolitan — loud, mad, brash, stylish, and in-your-face.

So, here are a few random snapshots from the last few, busy days…

(1) Various TORONTO attractions, including the CN Tower, Nathan Phillips Square, the Eaton Centre & Dundas Square…

(2) NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE: as charming and beautiful as I remember it…

(3) NIAGARA FALLS, in all its brash glory — including shots of the falls (one of them at the bottom of the falls :D) and the madness of Clifton Hill…

If you want the REAL / OFFICIAL / SO STUNNING THEY WILL MAKE YOU WEEP photos…you’ll have to ask my sister, when she gets them back from the photographer. But I’m willing to bet a few proofs will make it up on this site sooner or later… ;-)

I’m nervous as hell, and it’s not even my wedding!

I have to give away the bride. I have to give a reading during the service. I HATE HATE HATE dancing in front of people (I am a big…VERY BIG…klutz). My suit is hanging in the closet, and just looking at it makes me start to sweat.

God, I just want the day to fly by and be over.

I’m going to need many stiff drinks at the reception. Fortunately, it’s an open bar. :D

So, if you’re reading this, wish me luck. If I make it, I’ll try to post something in the manner of an “I survived” message on Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed…

PART 2 of 2

Written by Russell T. Davies

Directed by Graeme Harper

“I said: ‘Rose Tyler’.”

“Yeah…and how was that sentence gonna end?”

“Does it really need saying?”

How the hell do I review Journey’s End? This was completely and utterly BONKERS: mad, bad, dangerous, and makes one wonder if the production team was consuming far too many recreational drugs…

But after three viewings, I’ve come to the conclusion that this exercise in fanwank overload is also full of brilliant, surprising, touching, powerful moments. All tucked in between the large scale bangs, flashes, and CGI brilliance. It might threaten to topple over at any second…but it never does.

OK, let’s get the fanwank out of the way first. This episode nearly eats itself alive by giving us the following:

(1) the sudden appearance of Mickey and Jackie to save Sarah from the Daleks, complete with big guns

(2) the series of end-of-the-line ransoms presented by each group of companions

(3) multiple Daleks chanting, ranting, raving, and flying, as per usual…

(4) Davros descending into mad proto-Dalek ranting

(5) The TARDIS dragging the Earth home, complete with over-the-top rendition of the Ood song

(6) The everybody-out-of-the-TARDIS & goodbye scene that wouldn’t be out of place at the end of another cut of The Five Doctors…to say nothing of the probable new additions to Torchwood (come on, you KNOW it!)

And last but not least…

(7) The Doctor NOT regenerating, but diverting the energy to his hand…and a second Doctor GROWING out of that same hand!

So…still with me? Lots of people were turned off by all of this…lots of people not liking the same-old / same-old continuation of the madness in The Stolen Earth (though many of them were fandom, as this episode went to #1 in the UK ratings by a LONG way). But look in between all these scenes…

…because that’s where you’ll find the MEAT of the story, especially in its final ten minutes.

First of all, look at that gorgeous scene when Martha arrives in Germany with the Osterhagen key. Graeme Harper’s German-expressionist camera angles, the untranslated German that leaves an incredible amount of creepiness to the imagination…and German-speaking Daleks shouting “exterminate”…which brings a certain decades-old metaphor full circle.

This is followed by some fascinating counter-points to the first new-series finale, The Parting of the Ways (down to emerging from the TARDIS for a confrontation). Back then, the Daleks force the Doctor into the same choice he made at the end of the Time War. He refuses to make the same choice, and abandons the damaged, hurt, resentful man he was.

But Journey’s End gives us a Davros tuition on the Doctor’s usual modus operandii…and the realization that, perhaps, he isn’t quite the peaceful “cowarad” he would like us to believe. His companions are his weapons…and the consequences to their lives can be as painful as the destruction of planets and civilizations. Very nicely done…with a very effective montage, ending with a reminder of Jenny from The Doctor’s Daughter…which caused my friend Corey to shout “Oh, that’s not fair!” ;-)

Which leads us into the newly grown Doctor…a Doctor born of blood and battle. A David Tennant version of the Christopher Eccelston Doctor, with the same wit, charm and energy, but with a more dangerous glint in his eye…and far more dangerous in his actions. It also helps that is allows Tennant to demonstrate another acting tour-de-force. His competition with Catherine Tate to see who can “out-Donna” the other should be preserved on a tape loop and showed in a broadcast museum. :D

But the final ten minutes…that’s where the success of Journey’s End truly lies. First of all, the return to Bad Wolf Bay, last seen in Doomsday. Rose is given everything she wants: a Doctor for herself. Someone to love and grow old with…and a part-human hybrid who will grow old with her and love her back. Suffice to say, this resolution has split fandom down the middle, but I, for one, think it’s amazing. Not only does Russell Davies finish Rose’s journey once and for all, he closes the door on her life with the Doctor with an universe-shaking thud. Just look at the way the Doctor walks into the TARDIS, not looking back. Look at the way Rose watches the TARDIS disappear. She’s thinking what all of us are thinking: she has everything she wants, but once again, the Doctor sacrifices his personal happiness for someone else, without another word, or a second glance. It’s bleak and it’s beautiful.

And yet, ALL of this pales next to the conclusion of Donna’s story. This is, by far, the most bleak ending a companion has EVER suffered. Far more shocking than the death of Adric in Earthshock, and far more unsettling than the memory-wipe-and-return of Jamie and Zoe to their homes in The War Games. Circumstances force us to watch the death of a person we have come to know and love…someone who has come so far, so fast…and it’s all destroyed to save her life. What makes it even worse is that the Doctor has to perform the act himself, and without any words - just his eyes - we know exactly how much he aches inside his heart. Out of all his recent companions, Donna was his closest friend: his pal…his sister. They were made for each other…and to save her life, he destroys her…and obliterates his own happiness in the process.

I’ve watched that ending three times…and three times I’ve been left stunned, breathless, and immesurably sad. The fanwank, the psychological parallels between Davros and the Doctor, the Rose resolution…as good (or as loud) as any of that was…THIS is the gold standard of why Russell Davies’ Doctor Who works - at its best AND at its most frustrating.

The slate is wiped clean. Christmas with the Cybermen, and four more specials are all we have until Steven Moffat launches his first season as showrunner in 2010. Journey’s End is not perfect, but it will blow you away…for good, and for ill. It’s Russell Davies final statement as executive producer…everything that follows throughout 2009 is just a series of encores.

7.5

So…you might not hear much from me this week. That said, I’m sure I’ll find time to knock up a review of the Doctor Who finale (which has driven all of the UK bonkers this week), and perhaps the odd tid-bit or two.

Anyhow…wish me luck, as I dive into the social abyss… ;-)

“I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”

WALL-E is the story of a cute little robot, left befhind to clean up the mess on an abandoned planet Earth.

Earth is a dump: abandoned to its fate by the BuyNLarge Company…its garbage and detritus is everywhere. The Earth is beige and dusty and forgotten…and its WALL-E’s job to try and clean it.

WALL-E lives in an abandoned cargo ship, with a wonderful, magical collection of stuff. His favourite movie is Hello Dolly (of course he’s a Streisand fan).

WALL-E has a pet cockroach, who seems indestructible, and follows him everywhere.

WALL-E is lonley and wants love…and then the sleek little robot EVE arrives, stealing his heart and changing his life forever.

WALL-E is an absolutely brilliant movie…part silent film, part anti-corporate/anti-Wal-Mart fable…and completely wonderful. It’s motion picture art at its most exquisite, and it could well be the most powerful, simple statement a Pixar movie has ever made on the silver screen. Sheer genius!

WALL-E made me cry like a baby at the very end of the film. Damn it! Not much more I can say after that… :D

10

It’s been a mixed couple of days. I’ve had some nice highs…the geeky love-in with the most recent Doctor Who episode, a nomination for a teaching award…

I’ve had some less than stellar moments: my mom is under the weather (which is never a good thing), I miss my dad, I had a stressful last day at work (a certain someone’s smug, evil face was in my head all weekend), and I’m a bit dizzy and ill myself today. Combined with a few plans falling through, the result is that I’ve been alone with my melancholy thoughts for the last two days.

I’m sure it will get better…guests arriving from Poland, and my sister’s wedding are about to obliterate any and all considerations…but in this calm before the storm, I’m feeling (physically & mentally) out of sorts. A little threadbare in the soul.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of my family’s blackest time…as the middle of the month brings the first anniversary of the start of the year of hell: the year of chemotherapy, radiation, hospital trips, infections, ambulance calls, and slow death. It’s something I have no intention of writing about again…though don’t hold me to that. Perhaps I should say that I don’t WANT to write about it / think about it / contemplate it…

Anyhow, it’s Canada Day & there’s a Jaws marathon on TV (nothing like a set of really REALLY bad monster flicks to take your mind off the grim mental slums of reality). I’ll try to keep out of mischief, and swallow a bit more gravol.

Enjoy your holiday, everyone.

But I don’t care..my head is STILL spinning from the geeky/fanwanky overload of The Stolen Earth. It might be Doctor Who’s equivalent of Independence Day, but it’s still a billion times better…and it left millions of children (including me…hehe :D) very very happy.

Since there was no “next time” trailer, here is a special one, courtesy of the BBC, to whet some more appetites…

PART 1 of 2

Written by Russell T. Davies

Directed by Graeme Harper

“The Children of Time are moving against us, but everything is falling into place.”

OH MY F-CKING GOD!

There’s a bit of plot in here somewhere…but honestly…WHO THE HELL CARES!

The Stolen Earth is the most fanwanky / apocalyptic / end-of-everything / team up episode to end ALL episodes. It was as if Marvel and DC Comics combined to tell a story that would end EVERYTHING…TOGETHER…AT THE SAME TIME!

My bloody head hurts like you have no idea. I think my brain melted and poured out through my nose!

Ok…let’s sum up WHY THIS WAS THE GREATEST THING THE TEN YEAR OLD IN ALL OF US WILL EVER SEE:

(1) A new Dalek army! A new, RED Supreme Dalek! The rescued, emaciated, disgusted, sublime Davros! The insane, SINGING Dalek Caan!

(2) Every companion the news series has seen…every ONE OF THEM! And Rose being stroppy at this Martha woman she doesn’t know about!

(3) TORCHWOOD and SARAH JANE ADVENTURES guest stars in the SAME STORY!

(4) Freaking planets in the sky! Time war references! The Shadow Proclamation! Judoon! The all out Dalek assault on planet Earth that 1964’s Dalek Invasion of Earth could only DREAM ABOUT! Daleks destroying houses, families…and being more evil than…well…EVER!

(5) REGENERATION? HUH? DUH? ARGH! NO! You shall NOT TAKE DAVID TENNANT! Not yet!

This wasn’t a story…it was a bloody rush of adrenaline from start to finish. Epic in every single way a comic book/graphic novel can be epic…it even ends with the biggest, most outrageous TO BE CONTINUED statement ever done on television!

Oh my god, I think I’ve lost my mind! But I DON’T CARE! That was brilliant in a way I can’t even describe…and Bernard (Donna’s grandad) Cribbins STILL manages to steal all of his scenes!

Oh lord…how the hell am I supposed to wait until NEXT WEEK??? How can I possibly hold back the geeky squee that threatens to engulf the entire universe?!?

10

A superficial score, to be sure…but dammit, I nearly WET MY PANTS! :D

(OK…it PROBABLY deserves a 6…but really, how can you NOT love an adrenaline rush like THIS! If only Independence Day had been as enjoyable…but since it wasn’t, I’ll stick with my inner-child rating for this one. :D)

Written by Russell T. Davies

Directed by Graeme Harper

“You liar! You said I was special!”

Hmm…this one left me a bit…ambivalent.

Turn Left is grim. It’s post-war/post-apocalypse/post-traumatic grim. The what-if/Doctor-less future it paints is bleak, mundane, depressing, sad, and devoid of any spark of colour or life…and those that do appear (such as the Italian house mates in Leeds) are squashed mercilessly and tearfully. If all of us believed Midnight plunged into the darkest abyss of the season, Turn Left dove in even deeper! Was there any bleaker moment in Doctor Who than the labour camp departure scene? Perhaps the scene where Donna admits that this war-deprived society isn’t even fighting a war; it’s all for nothing, and they have become nothing.

Turn Left is hard work, because it requires a great deal of short hand. Time moves so quickly…events, catastrophes, crises…that it’s not only overwhelming in scope and content, but occasionally rather irritating. Not because it’s even remotely terrible (far FAR from it), but the plot could fill two entire episodes, and it leaves the audience begging to see EVERYTHING.

That is succeeds as well as it does is certainly down to the direction and the acting. Russell Davies is playing with a tried-and-true SF formula - it’s easy on his end. But Graeme Harper manages to fill every frame of this alternative non-Doctor Who universe with enough evocative eye candy to keep the audience entranced…and the Noble family does the rest.

If there remains ANY naysayer in existence that continues to believe that Catherine Tate doesn’t have the acting chops to be a successful Doctor Who companion, such as person must surely crawl under a giant rock and die a horrible, gooey death. Tate has never been as brilliant as she is here, delivering what could well be the performance of her career. She is matched by the legendary Bernard Cribbins, who manages to steal every single scene he’s in…and own every single second of his screen time as Donna’s grandad. A special mention to Jacqueline King as Donna’s mum, who’s descent into depression is poignantly portrayed.

Hmm…and then there’s Billie Piper’s return as Rose. She’s working on remembering the accent (annoying, and misfiring as a lisp on several occasions), she’s ridiculously Doctor-ish in her cryptic attitude (interesting), and she doesn’t offer a lot of answers (irritating). That said, she certainly adds an unearthly presence to the episode…but she can be strangely off-putting to watch. I honestly don’t know what to think of it…

This was a necessary step to the fireworks coming in the next episode…but in some ways, it’s a spectacular flop. There’s too much stuffed into a single 50 minute adventure, and despite their absolute BRILLIANCE, the actors are forced to carry all of it on their own shoulders. The entire episode owes its success to their combined talents, and in lesser hands, it would have been a disaster.

So we’ll give it a 7…and see whether or not this fascinating detour grows on me over time.

That said, I appreciated all the details that acted as loving hommage to the previous end-of-the-universe apocalypse in Doctor Who: 1981’s 4th Doctor swan-song Logopolis. You know the old saying…the more things change… ;-)

Directed by Michael Rymer

“What have I done? All of the people I’ve sent to die? For what? For what!”

“For Earth.”

“There is no Earth. It is a frakkin’ joke! There is no Earth!”

For a while, I thought I was watching Battlestar Galactica going all Star Trek. But it did so in its usual Galactica way: simple, straightforward, and grounded in brutal, honest reality.

The first 45 minutes of Revelations is the ultimate game of chicken: EVERYONE revealing their true colours, lettting their emotions loose, and making the final, unequivocal stand-off. It was tense, it was shocking, and once again, it was all down to some exceptional performances. Catharsis at last! I love good catharsis…and the writers clearly relish the chance to take the characters - and the audience - to the finish line.

I swear by all that is holy, if Michael Hogan doesn’t receive an Emmy nomination for his work as Saul Tigh, then there truly is no justice in the universe. Revelations sees the ultimate expression of the man (the Cylon?) he is: fallible, honourable, stoic, terrified, and resigned to his fate. His admission to Adama about who and what he is sent shivers down my spine that could have deep-frozen equatorial Africa…

…and THEN, a moment later, it was actually TOPPED by Edward James Olmos, who finally delivers the emotional breakdown we all know he’s been repressing for so long. Watching the Admiral come apart in his son’s arms could well be the most heartbreaking scene in all of Galactica’s four year history. Again, I’ll invoke the word “Emmy”, but I won’t hold my breath.

But…we’re not through yet, as Sam and Tyrol realize that Kara’s new raptor is pointing the way to Earth…and the discovery leads to the long awaited rapprochment between humans and Cylons (at least, the rebel Cylons…god knows what’s going to happen when we run into the others). I joked that this is very Star Trek, but this alliance is born out of exhaustion, sadness, desperation, weariness, and the faintest glimmer of hope. Everyone just wants to stop searching and find a HOME…and the joy upon reaching Earth is the kind of subdued intensity I was hoping to witness.

Unfortunately, Earth is a radioactive cinder! Something terrible (yet…inevitable?) has occurred…but what? How did this happen? WHAT actually happened? Perhaps the biggest shock isn’t the audience, staring at the TV screen, open-mouthed…it’s the desolate, stunned expressions of our main characters, and the dead eyes of Adams as he simply mutters “Earth”. It was clearly a nod to the conclusion of the original Planet of the Apes…but that film didn’t find such perfection in its desolation.

It’s been quite a tense, mind-shredding ten week run. We now take a long (oh god, SO LONG) pause until January to watch the final 10 episodes (season 4.5) of what is the best American show on television. It has a great deal to live up to…

9