Day Three Hundred and Sixty-five - The Cabin in the Woods, "THIS... IS... IT!"

I had absolutely no idea what to expect the first time I saw The Cabin in the Woods. I knew it was done by Drew Goddard and Mutant Enemy (see: Joss Whedon, et al.) so I had high hopes, but never was I expecting to be as blown away by its complete and utter subversion of the horror genre.

To put it simply, The Cabin in the Woods is the perfect homage to all of what encompasses Horror Films... and is a damned hilarious comedy as well. It's so good that it's supplanted every other Horror movie in existence to become my favorite of all time.

The story is fairly straight-forward, but is told in an unusual manner. In fact, just based on the cold open (which features key antagonists Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, as well as Whedonverse alum Amy Acker), you wouldn't think it a horror film at all... until the title card gives you a screaming jump scare and the stereotypical victims are all introduced.

As the college kid weekend getaway progresses and is contrasted with the bunker scenes, the film's strange conspiracy begins to reveal itself and the audience gleans that the whole shebang is a very carefully choreographed human sacrifice to ancient eldritch horrors. The victims choose their doom and the bureaucrats do their damnedest to make sure said doom comes to pass, for the survival of our entire species.

Of course, things go wrong and even as the pretty young things die one by one, the survivors manage to stumble on the inner workings of the sacrifice and throw a giant monkey-wrench into the works, dooming both themselves and us all to Hell on Earth at the hands of the ancient ones... and you're not quite sure they're wrong for doing so.

While I like how pretty much every one of the victims inverts their stereotypes in entertaining ways, the real stars of the show for me are Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. While I love both of them for the tremendous character actors that they are (see them in films/series like Killing Them Softly, The West Wing, and The Good Guys... Rich in the first and Brad in the latter two), it's here that their humor and presence really shines. From the laughter they inspire picking on The Harbinger (Tim de Zarn) and their cute dance routine to the serious moments like the quiet prayer Jenkins intones after the first death, these two "puppetmasters" really make the movie for me.

Cabin also bears the distinction of having Chris Hemsworth pre-Thor as Cabin was filmed just after Star Trek, but was shelved for several years, first due to 3D post conversion and then MGM's bankruptcy. Thank the Old Gods that it eventually came out (the 3D wasn't necessary at all), but I'm sort of glad Thor was released to theaters first as it provides fodder for a hilarious riff of Hemsworth during the keg scene ("ANOTHER!") that I always say no matter how many times I watch the film. Not that the film deserves riffing, as it's pretty close to perfection in my opinion, but is one of those movies that can take it (and take it well) even though riffing is not required.

Quick shoutout to Sigourney Weaver who makes a late game cameo not unlike her role in Pegg and Frost's Paul. It's a last minute treat that sends the movie over the top, I think.

And... that's pretty much it.

An entire year of Netflix: movies, series, documentaries, three hundred and sixty-five days of media all delivered over the internet at, what, nine bucks a month? I spent a hundred and eight dollars (plus electricity) for my daily doses of television and film. Sure, there was plenty of content that I wanted to see which never hit the Stream or dropped off before I could get to it, but there were also tooooons of episodes and movies that I never blogged about... usually binges of MLP:FiM or Phineas & Ferb, Cosmos (before it left) or MacGyver.

Good times.

I think I'll do a retrospective of some sort tomorrow... but, tonight? It's time to party. A full YEAR of Netflix. Wow. Kind of tearing up a little.

Thanks for reading, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-four - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, "The Hammer is My Penis."

During the Writer's Strike of '07/'08, an event which forced the shutdown of just about everything entertainment related and, notably, caused the destruction of the very promising comic book television series, Heroes, Joss Whedon and company had the idea to put on a small musical comedy that was inexpensive to produce and would appeal to their particular geek fanbase.

The result was Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Filmed over several days in Los Angeles and featuring a cast of geek notables such as Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and Simon Helberg, Dr. Horrible tells the story of tragic anti-hero Billy, who dreams of taking over the world and getting together with his secret crush only to be foiled time and time again by his nemesis, Captain Hammer (Fillion).

I think that Dr. Horrible was a convergence of all the right nerd elements to produce the perfect viral musical. Joss, et al., had already cut their teeth on musicals in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with "Once More, With Feeling," so they had that, but there was also the great cast to go with it. NPH is perfect to play the lonely, disaffected nerd thanks to his work on Doogie Howser and Nathan Fillion was no stranger to the overblown characters that Joss has been known to write, having worked with him on both Buffy and Firefly.

The wildcard for me was Felicia Day. Sure, she had a small role on Buffy, but most her work, while popular on the net, hadn't really broken her out. I think her sweet performance as Penny really did wonders for her geek cred and made her the darling of conventions for years to come.

As a musical, it's amazing how intricate the lyrics can get in terms of meter, rhythm, and rhyme. There's a lot of modern Broadway that's present here and to great effect. Sure, some of the instrumentation is rudimentary, relying a bit too much on the synthesizer, but it's quick and painless for the most part and relays a certain naivete inherent to Billy's character. Standout's for me were "Brand New Day," "Slipping," and "Everything You Ever," which is so hauntingly sweet and depressing at the same time.

The production quality is rough, but extremely forgivable considering the shoestring budget that they were working with... plus it sort of adds to the charm in its own way, lending a bit of subtle surreality necessary for a universe where villains like Bad Horse and Moist coexist with self-righteous heroes like Johnny Snow and Captain Hammer... a sort of vapid, modern-day dystopia.

I also want to give a quick shoutout to the background action during "My Eyes." Seeing Billy show up as a disgruntled Soup Nazi late in the song made me laugh so hard and long that I had to rewind the episode to catch what I'd missed while ROFLing.

Dr. Horrible is a great bit of comic book tomfoolery with a terrific cast and fun songs. My only regret is that there's no sequel as of yet (though speculation and teases from Joss and company have been running rampant for years). It's definitely worth the watch and is one of those films that you can come back to over and over again really rather easily... and, as such, will remain in my queue for easy access until the sad day when it get's pulled... IF it gets pulled.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Nineteen - Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 2, "That was a bit, um, British, wasn't it?"

When last we saw Buffy, back in the middle of June, she was about to be bitten by Luke (Brian Thompson) and thus end the series on the very first episode: Heroine slain, Evil triumphant, and the World destroyed.

Of course, that didn't happen... the cliffhanger carrying over immediately into the second episode where, luckily, Luke tries to cop a feel (I mean, it's Sarah Michelle Gellar... who wouldn't?) and grabs a handful of demon-burning crucifix. The same crucifix given to her by the startlingly young looking Angel (David Boreanaz).

Anyway, life spared, she and two of the potential Scoobies manage to get away and live to Slay another day.

I love how entirely silly the vampires' plans both to trap Buffy and initiate the Harvest are. It kind of is just like they're in an episode of Scooby Doo and that's really the charm of it all.

Sure, if you want to get real (and forget all the vampires and mystical nya-nya), an evil organization that has been in existence for hundreds of years probably would've planned better than, "let's plant our least experienced member in her group and have him fumble around" or "let's go to the one place in town teenagers (which our mortal enemy is) hang out and start a massacre."

I mean, honestly... Luke should've just gone to a nursing home or something. Tons of docile fleshbags just waiting to kick it. No direct connection to the Slayer and her Scoobies. Easy, simple.

But, that's melodrama for you, and it's hilariously bad and awesome at the same time!

I love Buffy for so many reasons: its camp horror, its archetypal characters, its 90's wit and sarcasm. I even love how dated all the technology is... I mean, just look at the computers that Harmony and Cordelia are "programming" on in the second act.

High-larious!

Sure, a few of the trappings don't hold up, but the series as a whole is still brilliantly silly fun. There's a reason that Joss Whedon is a geek god and I can easily recommend the series... you just have to look at it with an open mind and childlike (or, at least, a teenager's) whimsey.

Also, even wings-over-my-hammy Angel is better than Edward-freaking-Cullen.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and One - Firefly: Episode 14, Objects In Space, "Well, Here I Am."

Still needing the comfort of the familiar and pleasing, but not quite so desperate that I can't handle a little heartbreak and longing, today's entry was easy to decide on... being the last episode of Joss Whedon's ill-fated and much beloved Firefly.

There's so much to love about this universe. It's a Western, but Science Fiction. It isn't bothered by its space-faring trappings and strictures, instead using them to great effect when necessary and, the grand majority of the time, not even bothering... choosing to tell quiet, human stories of grit and perseverance.

Objects In Space doesn't spend a lot of time with the actual crew, a rarity for final episodes, instead spending most of its effort on the guest character, Jubal Early (Richard Brooks whom most folks would probably recognize from his work in the early seasons of Law & Order).

I like Jubal... he's an interesting foil.

Obviously a psychopath, Jubal has a calm, mellow charm that is offset both by his odd questions/musings and his stark shifts from friendly to threatening.

Most psychopaths portrayed on television are done so severely, showing their threatening nature with heavy violence and tense soundtracks. Jubal is much more interesting due to his systematic and rational takedowns of the crew and subsequent negotiations with River/Serenity.

For me, all the joy and interest in the character comes from his thought process. I mean, honestly, the "Am I a Lion?" scene with Simon is pure brilliance in its awkwardness... and the only rough parts come from the quick madness cuts while River dresses Jubal down over the comm system.

Objects In Space is also great thanks to all the callbacks to previous episodes. Whether it's the assault on Niska's Skyplex or Jayne getting slashed, it's always good to have a show that doesn't live on stand alone episodes, like Star Trek does for the most part as an example. Rich, organic, self-referencing continuity makes for often tremendous television.

It's sad to see a favorite series end, even though I've been here with Firefly many times before... and even though it does continue with the film Serenity... I just mourn for all the grand potential the series had yet to explore and never rightly got to, even with the movie and the comics. Hell, especially because of the movie, since many compromises had to be made to give the film enough oomph worthy of both a feature and a sendoff.

If you haven't yet become a Browncoat, I definitely recommend the series. It was one of the greatest scifi shows to air in recent years and was cut tragically short by the network.

But the dream lives on in all of us Browncoats out here, subsisting on Netflix and DVDs and Blu-rays.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Seventy-four - Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 1, "Oh, Sunnydale... how I've missed you."

It's an almost inevitable constant of every television (or, perhaps, any media) generation that there are shows which encompass the zeitgeist of what it is to be a teen.

In the 80's, the argument could be made in favor of Family Ties, Growing Pains, Family Matters. For the 90's, you would almost certainly throw 90210, Dawson's Creek, and Saved By The Bell into the arena. For the Millenium, you'd be hard pressed to argue against The O.C., Gilmore Girls, and Friday Night Lights.

My favorite started in '97 and carried through seven seasons and a network switch, spawning a spinoff and continuing off the air in the form of Season 8 and 9 comic book series.

Of course, you know already that I'm referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy came out at the perfect time in my life as I was the exact same age as all the characters involved. It mixed elements of horror, scifi, and teen dramedy... what could be more perfect for an ubergeek like myself?

This particular episode started it all (on television anyway)... picking up where Kristy Swanson left off with the movie, Buffy (now played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is starting her sophomore year in a new town hoping to divest herself of her Slayer identity and reboot her life.

Unfortunately for her intentions, Destiny has other ideas and has lured her to The Hellmouth, Sunnydale's ancient name, where all the various big bads and evils of the world tend to gravitate.

In the first episode we're introduced to the majority of those who would become the Scooby Gang: Xander, Willow, Giles, and an oftentimes reluctant Cordelia. They're all staple archetypes that include the stuffy librarian, the shy brain, the goofy sidekick, and the scene girl. We're also treated to brief scenes with her first love interest, the brooding Angel (David Boreanaz of BONES fame), and her first season long mortal enemy, The Master, who is trapped beneath the city in a ruined church, straining to escape and wreak havoc on the world.

The episode (and the series, as a whole) is a mashup of your prototypical teen drama and the supernatural horror films it loves to emulate. Both of its constituent genres are often fraught with cheesiness and there's no difference here. If anything, they're both amped to extreme levels, the vampire makeup and fight scenes eliciting, at the very least, serious eyerolls to newcomers.

That said, I love every second of said cheese.

It's just so over the top that is bounces right off terrible and firmly in the land of completely entertaining. The bad lines, the awkward social interactions, the silly villains... mixed together as they are, they make all the terrible elements into a relatively thrilling teen dramedy that's much more compelling than anything the networks were throwing at us before, during, and pretty much since.

I highly doubt my seventeen year old self would look anything but askance at today's Vampire Diaries which, thanks to the Twi-hard crowd, is all doom and gloom and none of the glib that made Buffy so great. And my thirty-two year old self can still safely enjoy the uber-cheese from the distance of well over a decade, cringing only here and there at obviously dated fashions, catch-phrases, and pick up lines.

Fair warning, this first episode is a two-parter, ending on a "to be continued" moment as the mid-boss of the pilot, The Master's right hand vamp Luke (Brian Thompson), closes in for the kill (you know he'll get dusted and Buffy will prevail)... but I certainly recommend a series watch.

While the cheese remains the same, the characters developed startlingly well over the arc of the series, shifting from uncertain teens to dedicated adults who suffer loss, love daringly, and find their passions... even if a lot of said passion is kicking evil's butt!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Sixty-three - Firefly: Episode 13, Heart of Gold, "Poor, poor Inara."

There is a reason that Firefly has become the go-to series for the internet and its geeks (of which I am one).

For one thing, it has tremendously simple, yet deviously charismatic and witty dialogue. For another? It's just so damn fun.

I had personally given up on the Space Western in the 80's when Ice Pirates and Battle Beyond the Stars hit, the (only) Star Wars Trilogy having been wrapped up rather neatly and Scifi as a genre banking more on grand, sweeping visions of the future where the trials and tribulations of man are all alien based instead of centered on more human stories.

When I heard Joss Whedon, creator of my favorite camp horror show of the late 90's/early millenium, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was making a new series on FOX, I was on board... and avidly supported the show as best I could, watching it (out of order and with episodes missing) and posting to the forums as often as I could.

The inevitable happened and, like most of my favorite shows, it was cancelled.

But... you're on the internet. Odds are you know this story. Odds are, you're probably a Firefly fan. Even if you're not, I'm still going to assume you are for the rest of this article because, unlike many of the other series I've watched for the blog, I'm going to skip ahead to the penultimate episode of the series.

Not the pilot. Not three or four in. No, I'm going for the gold... the Heart of Gold, as it were: episode 13... where Mal gets laid for the first time we've rightly seen and Inara? Well, poor Inara puts on a brave face, but it's a conundrum of her own design.

On the surface, Heart of Gold is your typical Western tale where the salt of the earth types hire gunman to protect their meager assets, but when you dig a bit deeper, the episode is more about Inara and Mal and the inevitable conclusion of their mating dance.

Having been hinted at passive-aggressively and with stolen, sleepy kisses in the past, Heart of Gold brings things to a head when Inara brokers Mal and the crew of the Serenity to help an old former Companion friend of hers. Seems an easy to hate villain wants to force his patrimony and misogyny on a Bunny Ranch that won't truck his control. In the process, Mal & Co. are hired as bodyguards and Inara all but thrusts Mal into the arms of her lusty friend. Not ever getting a kind word from Inara, Mal allows himself to be reluctantly seduced... and it all ends in tears for Inara.

I love this episode for that simple fact... it forces a confrontation of feelings for both characters, perhaps moreso for Inara, but you can't tell me that Mal isn't constantly reminded of just how much he desires and cares for his passenger, only to be rebuffed by her time and time again.

It's weird to me how much viewing pleasure I get from Inara's breakdown. I'm not happy that she's hurt (other than glad to see her admit, even in private, to her real feelings), it's just that there is such a surge of emotion inspired in me because of it. To see her so distraught when she is normally so prim and composed creates that extra emotional oomph that is a delight to see, no matter how sad I am because of it.

Aside from that juicy bit of drama, there are plenty of other cast interactions to please: Kaylee needles Simon about their own unresolved chemistry, River acts wise and naive in her delightfully quirky way, Jayne gets lucky (keeping him happy), Wash and Zoe argue over babymaking, and the Shepard... oh, his look when several girls relay how the last preacher to visit their whorehouse acted is just priceless.

The actual plot is weak and one-dimensional, which is disappointing when you consider the episode just before it (The Message) was very strong... but the dialogue and crew drama for the episode are just divine. It ranks very highly in my book, in spite of its weaknesses... but the whole series pretty much does that.

If you haven't watched Firefly yet, DO IT. Don't mince, don't dally or dither or some other d-word (like "delay," for instance). It's well worth it... and is one of my acid tests for "mah kind'o'people."

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~