Obdormio.com

It gets more and more hilarious by the second!

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(What, SOMEONE has to bring the activity to this place, and he DID give me an account to post here! Stop glaring.)

I like watching TV shows on DVD much better than watching them on tv. To be able to watch as many episodes as wanted in one sitting, anytime, and being able to hit pause every now and then (no TIVOs over here) just makes it all much more enjoyable. The downside is that I end up sitting in front of the tv all day long, watching episode after episode and neglecting everything else, such as school work, friends and food.

This past month or so, I’ve gone a bit overboard, and way over budget, when it comes to DVD collections, resulting in much, much neglect. To try and make up some of that, I’m writing up short reviews of the boxes here.

The one that I’ve been waiting the longest for is the first season of Stargate Atlantis, which finally became available in stores here, a mere year and a half after it was published. I’d had expectations for this built up pretty highly, but I was not disappointed. I won’t go into the show itself, suffice it to say it is highly recommended, and focus on the extras instead. I’ve been spoiled by several seasons of SG-1, where every single episode would have a commentary, so the Atlantis box did let me down a bit there. And the commentaries they did have seemed slightly rushed. Two of them included people who didn’t even work on the show at all, as if they just threw everybody with a free hour into the commentary room to fill it out.

The other extras were pretty much what I expected after eight seasons of SG-1 extras, and equally uninteresting, for the most part. I wish those video diary things were actual video diaries by the cast and crew, rather than orchestrated and directed by others.

All in all, it is a good box, thankfully smaller than the giant SG-1-boxes which just eat shelf space. It still has those inexplicable ads though, and this time they’re even more inexplicable, as there was no other Atlantis box out when this was published.

I’ve also bought the first two seasons of House, MD, which I’m really loving. They’re short on extras, but frankly, I’ve not seen the ones on them yet. I’ll probably be craving commentaries in a few days, when I’ve had a long enough break from the watching, but for now, the episodes themselves are enough. TV needs more crazy doctors.

And speaking of crazy doctors, I also bought season four of Scrubs, which is always fun. They’ve apparently given up on commentaries completely, which is a shame. They did include the some basics, though, like deleted scenes and short behind-the-scenes, which is more than I can say for the next show.

Namely, 3rd Rock from the Sun. As I said in the previous post, this show is several times more hilarious than I remembered it being, and I remembered it as being pretty damn hilarious. I’ve bought five seasons of this (oh, my aching wallet!), but the sixth is apparently not as easily available. These have no extras whatsoever, but the hilarity of the show makes the price more than worth it.

So, what do I say after several weeks of hard TV?

Fuck cliffhangers.

Seriously, fuck cliffhangers. Especially in season finales. I know, they do it to blackmail themselves into another season, which is good, I suppose, when it works, but they can also go horribly, horribly wrong. The Atlantis cliffhanger in particular is bugging the hell out of me. Who knows when season two will show up in stores here? Gnah.

Well, that’s what I’ve been doing these past few weeks. Now that I’m done, I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch up on all the stuff I’ve been ignoring. Like school work. All that lovely, lovely school work.

I wonder if season three of Arrested Development is available here yet…

- 3rd Rock From the Sun is several times better than I remember, and I remembered it as being pretty good. I should perhaps spend less time watching it and more time studying, but that doesn’t seem right somehow.
- The Order of the Stick is even better in book form, what with the bonus comics and commentary.
- Robert Llewellyn has a YouTube channel. In a perfect world this would be cause for public celebrations and national holidays, but I guess we can all celebrate by watching his videos instead.
- The Checkerboard Nightmare book is even better the second time around.
- I should write more. I’m far to lazy for my own good.
- I really need to find a new Red Dwarf RPG group.
- Prim is tasty. I should buy some.

Happily ignoring the fact that I haven’t written anything for a month, I thought I’d ponder the Web Cartoonist’s Choice Awards a bit.

The nominations for the 2007 WCCA was supposed to start yesterday, but it has apparently been delayed for a week. The plus side of this is that it gives people some time to brush up on the past year to find who they want to nominate.

I’m not allowed to actually nominate anybody, since I’m not involved in the making of a webcomic. Actually, I am involved in the making of what can be called a webcomic, but I doubt it would get me past the WCCA bouncer. It certainly wouldn’t if I was the WCCA bouncer. Anyways, even though I can’t actually nominate anybody, here’s a little list of comics I’d like to see on the ballot this year.

I’ll start with the small print categories, first of all Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic. I can only think of one comic I read that might fit into this category. Fortunately, it’s a very good one that definitely deserves some recognition, namely The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. It isn’t really what I normally think of as a superhero or action comic, that sends my mind more towards Superman and The Phantom. Dr. McNinja is first and foremost hilarious, but a ninja (an especially a McNinja) is just as good as any superhero, and there is most definitely plenty of awesome action.

For Outstanding Science Fiction Comic, Starslip Crisis springs instantly to mind. In the last year, we’ve had fun interludes with the Chronomantic and Vore and Zillion, both of which are obviously building up to something awesome, met the fantastic villain Obdrath von Lucifuge, encountered the crisis, lost Jovia, lost Cirbozoid, and seen a ghost that wasn’t a ghost. It’s been exciting, thrilling, sad and extremely funny. I read a few other sci-fi strips, but this year Starslip has definitely been the best of them.

I think I’ll skip Outstanding Romantic Comic, can’t think of any to nominate for that, and move on to Outstanding Slice-of-Life Comic. Real Life. Easily. Real Life was actually the first webcomic I ever read, and it’s still one of my favorites. It’s changed a lot over the years, but it has always been funny. Without doing any real research, I think it’s actually moved more towards the realistic and autobiographical side, and away from the time machines and parallel universes in later years. There’s still the occasional space station, but that’s the exception rather than the rule, I think. I can think of a few other comics that might be nominated here, but Real Life deserves to beat them all.

In Outstanding Gaming Comic, The Order of the Stick is the only choice for me. It is one of the funniest comics I know of, and it also has a fantastic story, with excellent RPG jokes sprinkled on top.

With Outstanding Fantasy Comic, we reach the first category where I’m torn. People can nominate up to three comics for each category, but obviously only one of them can win, and I’m not sure which of my two candidates deserve that more. The first is The Gods of Arr-Kelaan which has had a good year, especially since the new Consequences story started. The other is The Knights of Dor, one of my favorite fantasy stories in general, not just in comics.

For Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic, I’ll say Kevin and Kell, as it is the only one I can think of where the fact that the characters are animals serves a purpose.

Moving on to the writing awards, for Outstanding Dramatic Comic I’m not sure who I’d nominate. Starslip Crisis has certainly had some great dramatic moments with the death of Jovia, the unveiling of the crisis and the war with Katarakis, so I think I’ll go with that.

For Outstanding Comedic Comic, Get Medieval. Get Medieval is one of the most consistently funny strips I know, with great gags, funny stories and humorous characters. This year it has had such high points as siege by bees, Georges le Gai, the tournament and of course the pilgrimage.

I don’t think I read any single panel comic regularly, so I’ll skip that, and go to Outstanding Short Form Comic. I’d nominate Count Your Sheep, which come to think of it has very little story or continuity between individuals strips. That amazing mix of sad, cute and funny definitely deserves an award of some sort, and seeing as how it does all this in self-contained strips, this would be a good one.

For Outstanding Long Form Comic, I have a problem. Starslip Crisis, The Gods of Arr-Kelaan, Get Medieval, The Order of the Stick, Narbonic and Cheshire Crossing are all comics I feel have had awesome stories this year, and I have no idea how to choose between them. If it comes to it, I guess Starslip, The Order of the Stick and Narbonic would be my three nominees.

Moving on, Outstanding Character Writing. I have no idea. What comes to mind is Vanderbeam revealing new sides of himself at the death of Jovia. And the promotion of Cutter. And the war over Cirbozoid. Not to mention Cutter’s growth in the promotion to captain. And the recent fiasco at command school. Yeah, you know what, Starslip Crisis. Also coming to mind is Narbonic, with Dave’s dismissal and descent into madness, and the effect of this on all the characters, so two nominees here.

Then for the main writing award, Outstanding Writer. I’d nominate Kristofer Straub (of Starslip Crisis), Irony Chan (of Get Medieval) and Shaenon Garrity (of Narbonic). All three write fantastic comics, that are funny and have exiting stories. Actually, I think I’ll reread them all after I finish this.

Now, for the art awards… I’m going to skip these. They deal with areas I don’t feel very confident commenting on. In general, the writing is much more crucial to whether or not I’ll like a comic than the art.

Come to think of it, though, Starslip Crisis should be nominated for Outstanding Website Design, for the very handy save place function and the extremely nifty Exhibition Mode.

Skipping the art, and saving the best for last, we come to Outstanding Newcomer. Here, I’d nominate Cheshire Crossing, which is Awesome with capital A, and Home on the Strange, which is good geeky fun. In the end Cheshire would probably get the vote from me if they both ended on the ballot, but Home on the Strange should be there as well.

Then the grand finale, Outstanding Comic. I’m really glad I can’t vote, as there is no way I can decide which of these has been the greatest this year. Narbonic and Get Medieval. I cannot set one over the other. They both ruled supremely in my reading list this year, with Starslip Crisis a close second.

And that’s it. If I were giving awards, those listed here would be the ones getting them.

Well, my reading list sure filled up. See you in another month.