The Slushoverse Theory: The Shared Realities of J.J. Abrams!

It feels like we are always talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the DC Extended Universe, or whatever new series in development with a “shared universe” idea has hit the webs this week.

After the success of the MCU, it was no surprise to see some of their work with a shared universe emulated by other franchises and studios. However, it’s easy to forget that while the MCU has basically perfected the idea, they were not the first studio, series, or franchise to dabble with a shared universe.

So today, we will be discussing one of the most interesting yet relatively unknown shared universes out there, and how it relates to other theories that we have seen over the years. Today we will be examining J.J. Abrams, Star Wars, Lost, and a number of other franchises that theoretically exist in the same cinematic universe.

Welcome to The Slushoverse Theory.

The Geek Exchange Podcast 008: Game of Dudes

The Geek Exchange Podcast is back and in this episode, much like the last, we are sticking with one topic. This time it is all Game of Thrones. Amanda is busy, so Daniel Woizinski is filling in.

Season four is now over. It will be an eternity before the show returns, so let’s all come together and talk about not only the season finale, but the series as a whole. Plus a bit of a books-to-TV comparison. It should go without saying, but just in case… this episode is full of SPOILERS regarding Game of Thrones. So if you aren’t caught up with the season four finale, avoid this until you are.

A Love Letter to Fringe and a Look at Tonight’s Finale

For a lot of people, Fringe is that weird show that the guy who made Lost did a few years ago, and maybe it got canceled? I’m not sure? Oh it’s still on? Weird.

Well those people are ignorant, or hate risky, great sci-fi that took chances with its audience’s expectations by having characters die, come back, re-die, be erased from existence, will themselves back into existence, change existence, change reality, and then die again but in a different universe where they’re not themselves until they suddenly are because of love. It’s a complex show in the best of ways, and while a lot of fans have said this last season has been uneven, I’ve loved every single minute of it so far. What may not make a lick of sense to most people I often find intriguing and worthy of speculation rather than anger and confusion, and Fringe is like crack for addicts of confusion like me. Even thinking about the nature of time-lines and who is who or what events actually literally transpired according to the shows multiple time-lines is a fascinating discussion to me, and is something I will continue to do long after the show ends.

Some may argue that the show is disjointed, poorly written, or relies to heavily on deus ex machina, but it does it in such a way where the frame of reference is inherently based on the fundamentally shifting nature of reality in the show, rather than relying on a previously unexplained or introduced macguffin to solve all the narrative problems and wrap up the story, (ala Battlestar Galactica’s “God” ending), Fringe embraces the idea that all of reality in every plane of existence is constantly in a state of flux, and that applies to the narrative as well. You could say that’s a half assed explanation for what some could see as sloppy writing, but I find it all intentional. It’s a show that has balls. It does things differently, and it did it all on its own terms and told the story it wanted to tell and lasted longer then it every should have while doing so. Watching the preview of the series finale is as intriguing as it is heartbreaking for me, because holy hell, when are we going to get another show like this?

I remember when Lost ended, ABC went on a nutso search for any kind of sci-fi/fantasy show to replace it to retain its audience, but failed miserably and now we’re stuck with also-ran shows like Once Upon A Time in its wake. What will the dregs of Fringe be? Will we end up with a bunch of lame, piss-poor sci-fi shows to fill the void made by Fringe’s departure? How will it end anyway? Will we get another Lost, (Brilliant and perfect, F the haters) or a miserable failure on every level? (the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica)

Considering its pedigree, I’d bet on the former. I’ll miss you Fringe. You crazy, amazing, ridiculous, silly, funny, heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, wonderful show, you.

 

New Fringe Season 5 Promo!

Here comes another noteworthy Fringe promo. They’re going full bore into preparing us for this whole flash forward thing they showed us last season, this time with a more viral video approach rather than a straight up preview. As we know, the Observers turned from an interesting story element of the mythology of the show, to the forefront of the threat to humanity as we know it. They have become the one, big bad, unifying thing that ties all of the “Fringe” events of Fringe all together in its entirety. The promo itself is fairly simple, with an Observer describing “Residency protocol”, which is just code for the installed curfews on us. He also frequently references “A scan”, which as we saw last season, is tantamount to a horrific psychically induced death, a la Scanners. In fact, assuming it’s intentional, I’m fairly positive it’s a reference to that film.

But of course they can’t show this on TV, but we all know that’s what they mean.

Here’s the promo:

I’m really antsy for this season to come already, as Fringe is a show that is truly unique. Never has a show gone from being truly awful, like it was in Season 1, to one of the best examples of Science Fiction in recent memory, and by far the best Sci-Fi show on television today. If you had asked me that the fifth season of this show would be as good as it is, and be where it is, in relation to the first season, I would have slapped you for trying to trick me into continuing to watch a terrible show. It took the coaxing of several friends repeatedly telling me “it gets better, it gets better, just watch it!”, to trudge all the way though the full first season. When I did, I got to that admittedly pretty clever and enticing last episode, which opened up the show in such a beautiful and revelatory way. It’s climb in quality since then has been exponential, and created some of the best hours of TV I’ve ever seen. Season 3’s “White Tulip“, featuring Peter Weller, also known as goddamned RoboCop, is an incredibly moving and brilliant time travel story that never manages to lose its emotional center, or get bogged down with technical minutiae. That episode alone puts Fringe up in the echelon of brilliant modern TV shows, alongside Battlestar Galactica, Lost, the first season of Heroes, Doctor Who, Carnivale, and even The X-Files.

The flash forward in this season isn’t exactly a new idea itself, as Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse employed the same tactic for its season finales, for both its seasons. Unfortunately, Dollhouse was a muddled, plodding, slow paced show that never found its footing, and meandered about for the whole first season until that decent finale. It’s a bummer that the finale, which might as well have been an entirely different show, was a much better show than Dollhouse ever was. Then Season 2 rolled around, and went back to the same boring, plodding pace, and that was enough for me. Fringe has taken the sudden flash forward concept and ran with it. What will happen to our Fringe team? What happened to Olivia in between now and then? And will the Observers be stopped? Will timelines be changed? Can they be changed? Is there truly no fate but what we make?

There’s even a few noticeable Easter eggs in the promo, that compelled me to grab screenshots for you to analyze and speculate further. Enjoy!

Goddamn, I wish it was September 28th already.

Fringe: Season 5 Promos Make Me Hate Linear Time…

If you’re not watching Fringe, you’re missing the best science fiction show on television, hands down. No other show takes such enterprising risks week to week with its narrative technique, story, character development, and concepts. It’s pretty daring to try to get the average viewer to accept such off the wall things as time travel, multi-verses, transhumanism, bio-engineering, genetic manipulation, and still have it all centered around a humane, emotional center. Last season, they pulled the most daring thing the show has done yet, and flash forwarded 20 years into the future, and showed us the true nature of the dystopian future we saw a glimpse of in Season 3. This season looks to show us how we get to that future, where the Observers start to do quite a bit more than observe.

That promo alone is packed with lots of juicy flashes there, a number of which have me speculating quite wildly. Will The Observers take Etta forcefully? Are they growing/harvesting organs? Why are they torturing Walter? And what’s the deal with the hatch they’re looking down into? Is a Scottish man in there, pushing a button to save the world?

It’s probably just a visual reference, since both shows are produced by JJ. Abrams, but I can’t help but wonder. On a website, somewhere, there’s probably mind-bending fan fiction being written, based on this shot alone. Either way, we’ll all have to wait until September 28th, to find out exactly what the hell is gonna happen to our favorite Fringe scientists, and whether or not they’ll stop the dire future we saw from happening.

Man, I wish I could see all time at once like The Observers, so I could watch this show already. Stupid linear time!

Hero Express – ‘Booster Gold’ Gets a Pilot, ‘Dark Knight’ Rumors Rise and ‘Star Trek 2’s Unlikely Villain

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

This is the Hero Express for November 23rd, 2011:

SyFy shooting Booster Gold Pilot – (MTV)

Here’s a short one to lead us back in to where Scoot left off in yesterday’s Express: Andrew Kreisberg , whose work you may know from Fringe, is slated to write a pilot for SyFy based on DC hero, Booster Gold. Executive Producer Greg Berlanti will be backing the project, which fits in nicely with his previous work on Green Lantern and No Ordinary Family.

It will be interesting to see if DC can find a place for its lesser-known heroes on television, as it seems they remain unable to find a lasting home on the silver screen.

‘Powers’ Pilot getting another Shot on FX – (MTV)

A while ago it was announced that the popular comic, Powers, was shooting a live-action pilot for FX, though it seemed initially like it wasn’t going to make it through. However, word is that FX has passed on a competing pilot and given Powers another chance, provided they can go back and do some more work on the special effects.

The comic’s writer, Brian Michael Bendis, tweeted happily about the news:

“In regard to ‘Powers’ TV: the pilot was crazy expensive and very lovely and shows incredible potential for a long series,” Bendis wrote. “The reshoots are planned for January and are all about tone and clarity. I am very proud of the pilot, as [is] [Michael Avon Oeming]. Stay tuned.”

Supposedly, according to Bendis, the process of going back to work on a pilot is not necessarily a bad sign, as FX is known to do this sort of thing. He mentioned that hit series Sons of Anarchy had to do the same.

A Slew of Set Photos from The Amazing Spider-Man – (SuperHero Hype/Newscom)

Two sets of photos have surfaced regarding The Amazing Spider-Man production. One features an extensive gallery of the cast on set for re-shoots, which you can see here. The other is much smaller, but much more revealing:

Most exciting to see, at least for me, is Rhys Ifans‘ ugly hand up there, which looks a lot like it means Connor’s experiment was a success (Giant lizard-monster transformation notwithstanding).

Empire Magazine’s TDKR Issue – (SuperHero Hype)

And here we are with the the Hero Express segment that likely overshadows the rest of these links; welcome to Dark Knight Station. Here are some photos (The best quality the internet has of them so far) of the Empire issue dedicated to the upcoming Batman movie:

‘Daredevil’ Reboot Gets a Writer

So the other day I went on a little bit of a rant regarding reboots and my thoughts on their frequent use in Hollywood. So now I might be contradicting myself a little, but if there was ever a movie that desperately needed a reboot, it’s Daredevil.

When it first came out in 2003 I was excited to see one of my all time favorite superheroes brought to the big screen, despite Ben Affleck‘s casting as the titular character. And most (if not all) of the fanbase out there was were pretty disappointed at the stinker presented to us.