…or at least, inherit just San Diego, for about a week. I haven’t blogged about a lot of things in a while, so to start with, let me just talk about Comic-Con. Yes, part of the reason I haven’t been blogging is because July was packed with a ton of exciting (and not so exciting) events – like the biggest geek-out fest of every year, San Diego Comic-Con International, held on July 22-26. I went to all four days, but I got into an accident on July 23rd, and well, it sort of ruined the rest of my Comic-Con experience. Anyway, I’m going to skip that part because I don’t really feel like going into the gory details, but let me start with the previews of shows I saw at the Con.
Let me start with the new ABC show V, which premieres this fall. The show is a remake of the 1984 TV series of the same name, which in summary is pretty much just about an alien invasion, the human resistance, etc. The show stars Firefly‘s Morena Baccarin, Lost‘s Elizabeth Mitchell, Party of Five‘s Scott Wolf and The 4400‘s Joel Gretsch. I watched the pilot, and although there were some interesting parts (such as an appearance by Firefly‘s Alan Tudyk), I felt like the show didn’t really bring anything new or interesting to the table. Morena Baccarin plays Anna, the leader of the “aliens” who are called “visitors” (hence the title ‘V’), while Elizabeth Mitchell plays FBI officer Erica Evans, who is trying to find out the truth about the visitors. The pilot jumped into the thick of it right away, and didn’t really spend any time introducing the characters. Actually, it starts right when the aliens invade (or more like, park their mothership on top of NYC) and you just have to sympathize for the characters from there. I felt like they could’ve done a much better job. For those of us who weren’t familiar with the 1984 series, a little build-up would probably have helped. It just seemed rushed and so it became tough to sympathize with characters who were strangers to you as the viewer. I’m going to give this show a chance, since I love Elizabeth Mitchell and of course, duh, there’s Morena Baccarin, but I don’t really see this show taking off. It’s nice to see Scott Wolf back in business, though.
Another new show which premieres this fall is The Vampire Diaries. Now, I’m not really qualified to talk about this because I left about 5 minutes after the pilot was shown (it was that bad), but I feel like speaking out about it. Dear Hollywood, enough with the fucking vampires. Seriously. What is this sudden fascination with vampires? And don’t even get me started about Twilight, because it’s nothing special. But let’s not get into a full-blown rant on Twilight, because I’ve reserved that for my next post (mwahahaha!). The Vampire Diaries is pretty much Twilight on TV. The only reason I stayed to watch the first few minutes of it was because I knew Ian Somerhalder [who played Boone on Lost] was going to be in it. Alas, Ian Somerhalder did not appear in those first 5 minutes I stayed. The bottom line: it [The Vampire Diaries] is nothing but teenage sap, akin to 90210. I’m sure the Twihards will love it.
On to the only vampires I can tolerate in HBO’s True Blood panel. This show kept me sane throughout this sweltering summer. I was committed to getting into this panel, so I waited in line for about 2 hours. No pain, no gain, right? Anyway, the panel consisted of Stephen Moyer (Bill), Ana Paquin (Sookie), Alan Ball (creator), Charlaine Harris (writer of the books), Rutina Wesley (Tara), Michelle Forbes (Mary Ann), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Sam Trammell (Sam), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica) and Alexander Skarsgard (Eric). Two people were clear standouts on this panel; Alexander and Nelsan, whose characters seemed to be the most well-received (and for good reason). Alexander was a clear favorite – he drew applause and shrieks from female hordes left and right. Poor Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton and Sookie’s lover, had to endure numerous questions about when Eric and Sookie would finally hook up. Alan Ball was the life of the panel; he has been known to be witty and engaging at these things and he defintiely proved that point at the panel. Michelle Forbes came off as a tad full of herself. She’s a tremendous actress, but she just had this haughty look on her face during the entire panel and didn’t seem quite that interested in what the fans had to ask her. What I learned from the panel was that Evan Rachel Wood was going to be joining the TB gang as the Vampire Queen. Should make for a fun season.
The Lost panel was one of the most fun panels I’ve ever been to. They [the powers that be, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) always know how to put on an excellent show, and since it was the last hurrah (Lost’s final season returns in January of 2010), it made sense that they closed the season with a bang. The panel started off with Damon and Carlton taking questions from the fans, when all of a sudden Jorge Garcia (Hurley) shows up at the microphone with questions, much to the delight and surprise of the entire fanbase at Hall H. Shortly thereafter, Michael Emerson (Ben) shows up, to an eruption of cheers from the audience. Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) filmed this hilarious short making fun of his eyelashes/eyeliner and also showed up at the panel. And then, for the ultimate surprise that pretty much drew the most applause, Josh Holloway showed up, causing a downright riot in Hall H. After a montage of fallen Lost characters that ended with the most heart-wrenching “death” of the series, Charlie Pace’s demise, voila! Dominic Monaghan appeared onstage. It truly was a fun experience, and what I learned from the panel was essentially something I had expected, which is that season 6 will be sort of a “reset” season. According to Darlton, season 6 will be very similar to season 1, and I read that clue as that the stories of the characters would reset back to that of season 1. Kate as a fugitive, Jack having issues with his father, Charlie still on drugs, etc. except the difference is perhaps in the details. For instance, it is revealed (through an America’s Most Wanted video) that in season 6, Kate, instead of running from the authorities after murdering her father, actually murders the wrong guy. So that’s a storyline we can wait to see unfold. Overall, the Lost panel was a real success and everyone came out of that amped and excited for the new season.
Other panels I went to: Sherlock Holmes from Warner Bros., which was a blast. Robert Downey Jr. commanded the room with such presence, and it was apparent he took his cue from the success of Iron Man during last year’s Comic-Con. Rachel McAdams and Joel Silver were present as well. The Disney panel was also fabulous. They premiered clips from the still unfinished new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog, which is the first time we’ve seen hand-drawn animation in a few years since the advent of 3D and Pixar. A surprise guest at the Disney panel was the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. I was so overwhelmed with surprise when I found out he was making an appearance. The crowd at Hall H was at its feet to welcome one of animation’s biggest icons, the man behind My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc.
Although I did feel that there was something a bit lacking at Comic-Con this year, I still thought it was a lot of fun. I would have liked to have been able to see James Cameron’s Avatar panel, but alas, one can only wait in line under the San Diego sun for so long. I will post pictures when I get the chance.
A Movie Script Ending 
