So, I decided to give Hulu a try.  I think if it works out, I'm going to ditch cable.  I already have Amazon Prime and Netflix and when you combine the three, I still pay so much less than I do for cable and I have more viewing choices.

I decided to try Hulu because David Alexander McDonald had pointed out that there was a British science fiction soap opera, Jupiter Moon, available.  There are currently 36 episodes of the 150 available, but maybe they'll get more.

It's such a 90s British show.  The hairstyles, the mod clothing trying to pass as futuristic garb, and the OTT performances all combine to make a show that is worth giving a chance for those who like the cheese.

Since I joined, I did a scan through their current programming and found they have Century City, a CBS program about a law firm in the future that I liked, but only got to see a couple of episodes.  Nine were made in total and now I can catch up on them.  There are other offerings exclusive to Hulu, making the trial run at least worth it.

My only real problem with the service is that they run commercials.  I guess considering it's only $8 a month, I shouldn't complain; but the cutaways, especially in the British programs, are not always the best.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing Ultraviolet, Eerie Indiana: The Next Dimension, and Spies.  The latter looks to be the British version of Chuck and it's exclusive to Hulu according to the promo that interupted my viewing of Jupiter Moon.

Oh, and I can catch up on my missing episodes of Terra Nova.  I know, many of you will ask, am I really missing it, but I saw the potential of the series and I want to see if they ever realize it.

As most of you know, I have begun a new podcast based on my love for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman called Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast.  Every two weeks, "Voice of the Rift" Paul K. Bisson and I dissect an episode of either series with a guest host.  Despite our love for both series, we knew that this simply couldn't be a love fest or we would never be taken seriously.

Last night, we recorded the first two true episodes.  We are starting with the TV movies that developed into the weekly series.  It's interesting to note how when you turn a critical eye to something you truly love and break it down, it doesn't seem as great as it would appear at first.

Without giving too much away, we all seemed to be in consensus that the pilot movie was close to perfect.  We noted the flaws and managed to give it a high number of bionic limbs for our rating.

The second movie, "Wine, Women, and War", didn't fair as well.  On the surface, I like it.  It's a decent movie - on the surface.  But when you really stop to think about the motivations and actions of Steve Austin in this film, it doesn't ring true with the man he was in the first film or the man we'll come to know in the series.  When you look at the clearly sexist atitudes being flaunted in this movie, it suddenly loses a lot of its shine.  And then there's the ridiculous way he took out the baddie.  Stay tuned to hear about that.

My whole point in saying all that was to say this.  Sometimes, it takes a true reflection of anything you truly love to see if it's really as good as you might hold it up to be.  It could be a beloved television show, an article of clothing that has clearly gone past its fashion sense time frame (if it ever really had one), or even a simple love for hamburgers (I'm so missing hamburgers at the moment).  We all have blinders when it comes to the nostalgia of what was, but the reality of what is can often be harsh and so much easier to avoid.  We like to think it's perfect or that we're perfect, but there is the harsh reality of it all and that's often hard to accept.

Just try not to be so harsh when you're watching those old episodes of the public access Rift.  I try to keep the shine on them myself.  I can't help it.

Putting it out there among the fans, would you like to appear on Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast? We need guest hosts who have something to say about the following episodes. The months listed are when they would be recorded, usually the first Friday of the month in the evening, EST.

PILOT MOVIES
Jan: "The Solid Gold Kidnapping"

1974 SEASON I
Jan: "Population: Zero" 
Feb: "Operation Firefly"
Mar: "Little Orphan Airplane"
Apr: "Doomsday And Counting" 
Apr: "Eyewitness To Murder"
May: "The Rescue Of Athena One"
May: "Dr. Wells Is Missing"
June: "The Last Of The Fourth Of Julys"

Comment here or write John at ABionicPodcast@gmail.com.

Like birds returning north after a rough winter, the spammers appear to be back here on the website.  I was actually thinking we were really dead here considering the boards have been quiet as of late and then the spammers weren't trying anything.

Well, in the last day, some eight or so accounts signed up and several tried to post garbage on the boards.

This place is still alive, somewhat.

I was never a big DC Comics fan.  They were always too colorful for me and when they went dark, it seemed like they were reaching for Marvel's audience.  But there has always been aspects of the DC universe I could appreciate.  I loved The Super Friends.  I loved Firestorm.  I got into the Teen Titans animated series.  I even liked the later seasons of The Justice League.

But for me, my standouts in what represented DC were the tv shows Superman in the 50s and Batman in the 60s.  Not that I watched them when they originally aired.  I was a child of the 70s, coming home from school and watching both shows on WPIX in New York.  At the time, I didn't realize how hokey so much of what was done on each show was.  I was into our heroes saving the day and doing it with what seemed, to me as a kid, like style.

Fast forward to the present.  Our DC Heroes are dark and gritty.  In fact, all our heroes are dark and gritty and moody.  There are no fun ones left.

Enter Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  This series claimed to be a love letter to the fans of the 50s Batman comic book.  The problem was that in the initial episodes, the stories were very pedantic and the humor was infantile.  Blue Beetle saves the day by hocking a loogie at a computer terminal that short circuits it and frees himself and Batman from the villain's clutches?  This looked more like what 70s cartoons could have progressed to had they continued to care less and less about the product as was evident in so many from that era.

I also had a problem with Diedrich Bader doing the voice.  It seemed to me like he was just doing a bad Kevin Conroy impression.  It didn't work, at first.

I watched the first season and railed against here on the show.  I don't know why I kept coming back.  I think it was my morbid curiosity to see the takes on the different heroes who teamed up with Batman each week.  This went on and I'd find myself taking longer and longer to watch episodes piling up on my DVR.  Honestly, more than the first half of the first season is pretty lame.

But then, we come to "The Color of Revenge".  In this episode, Robin is back and he's matured.  We've seen the story before in the comics and in other animated versions, but this time it's the Robin from the 60s show.  With this episode, it is firmly established that this Batman universe is connected to Adam West's.  In doing this, I finally get a lock on the show and I think the writers did too.

We're then treated to such great episodes as "Legends of the Dark Mite" (yes, they bring in Bat Mite), "Mayhem of the Music Meister" (yes, I do still have the songs in my head), "Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure" (how they managed to make Aquaman goofy and yet more interesting, I'll never understand), "The Golden Age of Justice", "A Bat Divided" (Firestorm!), "Sidekicks Assemble" (Loved it, but the Tick did it better), "The Power of Shazam" (was hoping we'd get to see Mentor from the tv series, but that'd be a stretch), "Chill of the Night", "The Last Patrol" (notable for doing a do-over of the Batgirl pilot episode for Batman), "Night of the Batmen", and finally "Mitefall".

I'm not going to get into the specifics of the last episode, "Mitefall".  It only just aired, but it sums up what this whole show was all about, taking the mickey out of the Batman myth.  It did it so well in the 60s and it did it again now.  It's a shame the 60s show never got a chance to go out like this one did, but if you consider that it's the same universe, then it actually did.

Good-bye Batman, while your Hammers of Justice will continue to drive in the Nails of Crime in future animated fare, it won't be the same.

So, the sixth new series of Doctor Who has come to an end and it looks like the most polarlizing series finale to date.  Either it was loved and considered the greatest piece of television ever written (why can't we give him his Hugo now?) or it was reviled as the most confusing mess since Lost's dark days.

I must admit that I have been leaning towards the latter when it comes to my opinion of Steven Moffat and his tenure as show runner of Doctor Who.  While I will admit that Moffat's ideas are clever and his dialogue engaging, he has forgotten one basic rule of television writing - tell a story.  In all his efforts to be crafty and "groundbreaking", he forgot to tell a story.  There's a lot of twists and turns that we've never seen before in Doctor Who, but when you put it all together, there's really not much in the way of story.

And that is something that sadly takes away from all that this series has going for it.  One of the mainstays of Doctor Who, in light of the fact that the series has historically not had strong special effects or eleborate set designs going for it, is that they had strong stories.  Even Doctor Who at its worst is still leaps and bounds better than most other programs' bad episodes.

When you think about it, you have Steven Moffat who crafted such stories as "Blink" and "The Empty Child".  You have Matt Smith who managed to soothe everyone's fears about replacing David Tennant.  You have a worldwide following, continually growing, and what do they have to show for it?  Time paradoxes involving the companions' child and disruptions of storylines of other writers in order to advance Moffat's plotline.  Think about it, every time it was neccessary to mention the crack in time or the Silence, the plot of such great stories were stopped in their tracks.  Moffat should have taken a page from Russell T. Davies and learned about subtlety when it came to such mentions as he did with Bad Wolf in series one or the inclusion of Rose in series four.

Here's the funny thing about Moffat.  When he was just a writer, he came in, told a damn fine story, and was gone.  And we revered him as the best writer in the series.  Now that he's the show runner, who's the best writer in the series - Neil Gaiman.  In fact, as I was watching "The Doctor's Wife" I kept thinking how sad it was that Moffat can't write like this anymore being the show runner.  He's too busy being "innovative" that he forgot to tell a story that leaves them wanting more.

And yet, despite all this, I have to give Moffat credit in that he did tie up most of the loose ends by the end of the series.  Not that I cared that much, as I have found myself really not caring anymore about Amy and River Song, (any chance Rory could just go off with the Doctor?) but he hasn't left us hanging.

So, now that this series is done, what do I suggest they do for series seven?  Easy...

1. Ditch Amy and Rory.  They annoy the hell out of me and where everyone complains that Rose was always the savior in her time with the Doctor, they really need to rewatch the last two series.  We only see the Doctor really shine in this final episode of series six, which is a major problem I have with this show.  Sorry, it's Doctor Who.  The only time where the Doctor took a backseat in a story was in the very first story, "An Unearthly Child" when it was thought that Ian was going to be the hero of the series and the Doctor was more of a taxi-driver, shuttling him and Barbara through time.
2. Mythology - Doctor Who has always played fast and loose with its mythology and frankly creating as rich a tapestry as Moffat does does not lend itself to the nature of the series, which is that you can walk in at any time and pick up the story.
3. Exploration - I'm going to get flack from Keith for this one, but I'm sick of Moffat using time to tell his story.  Countless planets, eons to explore - get out there and explore.  New stories with new races and new situations.
4. Ditch Amy - Changed my mind.  Keep Rory.  Ditch Amy and ditch River.  The sad part is there were a couple of recent episodes where it looked like the Doctor was gelling with a new companion and then he or she died.  I know the point was to show how dangerous he can be, thus he leaves Amy and Rory behind, but what it also showed was that Matt Smith works better with anyone OTHER than Karen Gillan (at least the way they're writing for her these days, which is totally distant from any real emotion.)  Ditch Amy.

We didn't note the anniversary of 9/11 on the last episode.  That was a conscious decision on my part.  I just didn't know how to approach the subject without it bringing down the whole show and I want the show to be a place where one comes to have fun.  We need that.  After everything I've been through this past year, I need that.

But I do feel that there needs to be something said or noted on the passing of this anniversary.  It is important that we never forget.  Recently, there was a report on the news that said that the average American thinks about 9/11 twice or three times a week.  These days, I find it a little hard to believe.  I know the media makes every effort not to let us forget, but when I see the way people in our society behave, I have to wonder.

I remember that morning vividly.  I'd only been living in our newly purchased home nine months.  Eddie, my son, was only five months old.  Sue was working in the city at the time for a public relations firm whose offices were close to the Empire State Building.

I was on my way to the first day of training for management with Uno Chicago Bar and Grill.  The training facility was less than twenty minutes away from my house.  It was a gorgeous morning and I was looking forward to getting my hands dirty in the kitchen as the managers had to know how to prepare all the items on the menu.  I was driving in my new car, listening and singing (yes, said, I know) to Sheryl Crow.  This was the start of something great.

I arrived at 6:30, had a cup of coffee, and was given my first tasks by Matty C., the manager of the Unos in the Danbury Mall.  I had to prepare the various salad items for the salad station.

I can still see the red peppers I was cutting when Matty leaned out the door of his office and called to me, "Hey, Johnny, a plane just hit the World Trade Center."  At the time, I didn't think much of it.  Since he didn't seem so anxious, I imagined it was some idiot in a small plane who flew off course.  I continuted my world.

A short time later, Matty poked his head out again.  "Johnny, a second plane just hit the tower."  Now this is weird.  I wipe my hands and walk to the office.

There, on this small 13 inch television I see the replay of the second plane hit.  Matty and I don't say anything else, but we know this isn't an accident or a coincidence.

The kitchen staff don't all speak English and I try my best with my knowledge of Spanish taught three years straight by my Spanish teacher, Ms. Mazzo, to explain the situation.

Matty soon sends the staff back out to continue preparation from the day, but he tells me not to worry as he know I'm trying to reach Sue and my mother-in law, who was minding Eddie.  The phone lines and cell signals are all screwed up and I can't through.

I want to go.  I want to go into Manhattan and look for Sue.  Matty, though it seemed cold at the time, said to me, "Johnny, you walk out that door and they won't take you back.  You're never going to make it into the city now as everyone is trying to escape.  Say the worst happens with your wife, you'll have to take care of that mortgage and a baby on your own.  Life still has to go on and it will tomorrow and the day after."

I spent the rest of the day, sitting in the bar area watching the events unfold.  I did eventually reach Sue and my mother-in-law.  The mall was closed at six that day.  Sue made it home just after midnight.

As I pulled into the driveway after picking Eddie up, my neighbors were sitting outside their house.  I'd never seen them do that before.  One of them said, "It's going to be a different world after this."

And it was.  We're more cautious.  We're more paranoid.  And despite the feelings engendered by the events that day, I feel that there are many who tend to forget what it really meant.

I haven't.  I never will.

God bless those who lost loved ones in the initial attack and those who lost people who died from health related concerns during rescue efforts.  We always talk about the death toll from 9/11, but those who passed after should be included.

When the whole reality television craze began years ago, there were those who felt it was a passing fad, citing shows like Survivor and The Real World as being moments in time rather than anything that would establish a trend.  Years later, we have entire networks that are programmed almost entirely of reality television.  Hell, there was a reality network for a short time run by Fox.

I myself thought I would never get on the bandwagon.  Usually, such programming is skewed to the least common denomentator with the antics of people on shows like Cheaters or The Jerry Springer Show. It was no wonder I felt like this wasn't my cup of tea.

But anything can be fodder for such programming, programming that is cheap and can draw a quick audience.  In particular, there are many programs that tie into my love for the restaurant/bar industry and I'm hooked on a number of shows because of it.

Bar Rescue - (Spike TV) Jon Taffer comes into a bar that's taken a downturn and tries to turn it around in a week.  What I like about this show is that Taffer explains the science, and there is one, of running a bar.

Restaurant: Impossible - (Food Network) Robert Irvine has only two days and a set budget of $10,000 to redesign and invigorate a failing restaurant.  I like this show as where other restaurant makeover shows show you the redesign as an end product, this show shows the actual work on the redesign.

Hell's Kitchen - (FOX) Not a restaurant show, but rather a contest to determine who can become head chef of one of Gordon Ramsay's multitude of restaurants.  This show does play to the more baser instincts and can become incredibly petty, but when the time comes to cook, watching the chefs at work is fascinating.

Masterchef - (FOX) Gordon Ramsay is actually the nice guy in this one. Joe Bastianich is more the bad guy in this one.  He is blunt and downright nasty with his criticism of bad food.  The contest takes a group of home amateur chefs and tries to determine the master chef among them.

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare's - (FOX/BBC America)  One could argue that this is the grandfather of all restaraunt makeover shows.  While I enjoy this show, I prefer Restaurant: Impossible for its approach to getting the job done in an timely manner while showing us how it's done.

The F Word - (BBC America) Yes, I do like Gordon Ramsay.  I find his passion for food infectious and this is a great show about food and the preparation while having fun and special guests.

So, what do you watch?  Maybe I can find some new shows.

Back when I was into LiveJournal, I used to post my television schedule for each new season.  Basically, I barely watch much modern television, preferring to watch old shows as they aired instead.  People find it odd, but it gives me something to look forward to as we live in a world with such instant access.  Anyway, here's how this season is looking.

Sunday - Dennis the Menace (season 1 on Netflix), Alfred Hitchcock (season 1 on Netflix), Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew (season 2 on DVD), Six Million Dollar Man (season 5 on DVD), Married with Children (season 2 on Netflix), That 70's Show (season 1 on Netflix), Monty Python (season 1 on Netflix), Top Gear (season 3 on Netflix)

Monday - Andy Griffith (season 1 on Netflix), Tomorrow People (season 7 on DVD), Muppet Show (season 3 on DVD), Little House (season 6 on DVD)

Tuesday - Dick Van Dyke (season 1 on Netflix), Moonlighting (season 2 on DVD), Soap (season 2 on Netflix), 24 (season 2 on Netflix), Spooks (season 6 on Netflix)

Wednesday - All in the Family (season 7 on DVD), Voyager (season 4 on DVD), Family Ties (season 1 on Netflix), Angel (season 5 on DVD)

Thursday - The Lone Ranger (season 1 on Netflix), The Munsters (season 1 on Netflix), Mork and Mindy (season 2 on DVD), The Cosby Show (season 1 on Netflix), Cheers (season 1 on Netflix), Scrubs (season 3 on DVD), Red Dwarf (season 5 on Netflix)

Friday - The Addams Family (season 1 on Netflix), Superman (season 2 on DVD), Twilight Zone (season 1 on Netflix), Farscape (season 2 on Netflix), Stargate SG-1 (season 2 on Netflix), My Family (season 3 on DVD)

Saturday - Doctor Who (season 13 on DVD and tape), All Creatures Great and Small (season 2 on Netflix), The Bionic Woman (season 3 on DVD), Airwolf (season 2 on Netflix), Hercules (season 2 on Netflix), Zena (season 1 on Netflix), Saturday Night Live (season 2 on Netflix)

It seems like a lot, but fortunately, the way they are scheduled, most nights are pretty tame.  I wnt a little overboard in some cases, but I'm enjoying Netflix's selections of old television.

Dave and I have been talking about updating the website for months now.  Recent events with Dave though have put those plans on hiatus.  Those events have been good and bad.  The good has been that Dave is gainfully employed with a company he is loving.  We're all very happy for him.  The downside has been that he has been without power ever since Hurricane Irene.  We hope that that situation changes very quickly.

In the meantime, I wanted to get this out.  We premiere the first episode of our fourth year tomorrow and I wanted the site to be ready.  I have also been talking about getting people back on the site and I'm hoping the more streamlined look will make that possible.

This isn't the finished product.  Once Dave is back online, I'm sure he'll be tweeking or changing things to make the site runs even smoother.  In the meantime, please let me know what you think and please make it a point to make the Rift website a part of your daily or weekly browsing.