Out With the Old, In With the New

TUESDAY PSA:  Don't forget, new episodes of Stargate Universe and Caprica tonight on Syfy starting at 8 p.m CST!!!

With The Guild wrapped up for another season, and the Legend of Neil series finale getting ready to air tomorrow, there is a sad empty spot in my heart that was once filled by web series.  But, never fret!  Syfy has the answer (scary as that may seem)!  A new web series is premiering today on the Syfy website called Riese:  Kingdom Falling.  Here's the "about" blurb for the series:

Riese: Kingdom Falling takes place in Eleysia, a dying kingdom where distrust and anxiety have clouded people's minds, causing a regression into primitive ways of thinking. Rituals and mythology have resurged, and the darker side of mankind has begun to reveal itself. Riese, a wanderer, travels across the decaying land with her wolf, Fenrir. Marked as a heretic by religious group The Sect and the new Empress, Riese must evade their assassins and discover their true intentions for Eleysia.

Narrated by Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary), the series stars a cavalcade of talent from the world of popular speculative drama including Christine Chatelain (The Bone Collector); Sharon Taylor (Stargate Universe); Ben Cotton (Harper's Island), Allison Mack (Smallville); Ryan Robbins (Caprica); Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe); Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica) and Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary).

Of course, this isn't actually a new series.  Riese was running under it's own steam for at least one whole story arc before the creators brokered a deal with Syfy and pulled all the episodes off the air so it could be retooled and they could have exclusive rights to it.  I watched the first episode about a year ago and was very intrigued.  I didn't get a chance to delve too deep into it before it was pulled though, so I am really excited that it has come back.  I can only hope Syfy does it justice.

Though looking at their website I can already see a big issue.  They don't seem to understand that part of what makes web series so popular is that they don't follow the BS scheduling practices of network and cable television.  They've got its scheduled "air time" plastered all over the page--which isn't until 11 pm CST.  What the heezy?  Sigh.  Once the episode is up, it should be available for viewing at any time though (hopefully), but still.  Come on, Syfy, don't jerk us around and try to make us dance to your schedule--that defeats the whole purpose of a web series.  If I get excited because Tuesday is web series day, that means I get excited because I can hop on my computer at any point on Tuesday and watch my shows, not have to wait until the end of the day or the next day for you to get it put up.  At that point, you may as well just decide that Riese day is Wednesday, not Tuesday.  I really do want this series to succeed though, because it truly does have a fantastic cast--those listed above don't even start to list all of the awesome people involved. 

But this just reminds me again that the heyday of the SciFi Channel is long long gone.  There was the name change, of course.  I'm not going to get into my rant about that, it's been done already and often, and has been done well.  Plus, there's the wrestling thing.  Look, I am not a fan of professional wrestling.  I really just don't get the appeal.  Many people I know (my brother-in-law in particular) love it, and I am totally cool with that.  Not everybody enjoys science fiction on the level that I do, after all.  To each his own.  BUT.  Syfy is supposed to be a specialized cable channel.  Changing the spelling of your name doesn't change the expectations a name like "Syfy" is going to give your viewers.  The programming decisions that the network has been making over the last several years has made it very clear to me that the people now running the show don't believe there is an economically sustainable demand for a purely science fiction and fantasy channel.  So they've got this Ghost Hunters crap, and they've got wrestling.  And they keep making ridiculously substandard monster and disaster movies instead of devoting those resources to well-done series.

Update:  It looks like the first episode is already up and can be watched here.  Thank goodness for Ryan Robbins' FB account keeping us all in the loop!  Though, this does make me wonder, why the heck do you even have an air time listed on your website at all Syfy?  

The decision to move Stargate Universe and Caprica to Tuesday nights is another clue that the people running the show don't really care about the actual scifi programming anymore.  They moved the shows primarily because they got Friday night wrestling and didn't want to risk losing any of those shiny new viewers by changing the night of the program, so they decided instead to screw over all of the existing viewers by canceling the long-standing SciFriday and shunting our programming to Tuesday nights.  The argument was that this should actually help these shows succeed because their summer programming does so well on Tuesday nights.  Okay, see, here's the thing, summer programming that is original is going to do better simply because it isn't reruns.  But your fall shows?  Why would you put them on against such a seriously stacked existing Tuesday night lineup on other channels?  An io9 article yesterday stated that SGU and Caprica are "circling the drain" and it made me bristle--but it's true.  The ratings have been abysmal.  The shows themselves have been outstanding, but there is simply too much competition on Tuesday nights for anyone who isn't a straight up fangirl/guy to bother about watching the shows live in the days of DVR.  The +7 day numbers for SGU, at least, are something like an additional 70%.  What does that say when 70% of your viewers aren't watching your show live?  It says it's on at a bad day and time.  The end of the year is coming up, and along with it the decision of whether or not to give these two shows new seasons.  I think the yea or nay here is going to say a lot about the network's devotion to its scifi programming, because the move to a new date should definitely be taken into account when they start crunching numbers.  I try to keep watching this channel, because the genre shows it does air are a lot of my favorites, but it is getting harder and harder to trust the people behind the scenes to look out for my viewing interests, I'll tell you that.

Hmm, well, that was a kind of unintended rant.  Sorry about that.  I'll wrap up with some costuming updates.  I only ended up having one party to go to last weekend because one got called on account of rain and rescheduled for a few weeks from now.  As predicted, no one at the party recognized my costume, but that's alright.  Here's a reminder of what I was going for:

Karen Gillan as Amy Pond

And here's what I ended up with:

Cori as Amy Pond

Considering I am a bit shorter and quite a bit rounder than Karen Gillan, I think I pulled it off rather well.  I do think however, that when I do wear this to a convention, I'll probably just go ahead and invest in getting my hair colored, because when push came to shove, I couldn't bring myself to wear the wig.  Here's what it looked like with the wig though, in case you're curious:

This wig adds +6 to Silliness.

And, to close things out on a happy note, here's another picture of a baby dressed as a giraffe.  

Baby Girl checks out her costume.

Enjoy your Tuesday, folks.

Tuesday is Your Friend

Howdy, folks! 

Just a few quick reminders for you: 

There's a new episode of Stargate Universe on tonight! 

(Syfy @ 8 p.m. CST)

Caprica is finally back with new episodes right after Stargate!!

I will, of course, have my Stargate write-up for you tomorrow.  Speaking of Stargate, I found out today that there is a series of comic books out about the SG-1 character Vala Mal Doran (fabulously portrayed by Claudia Black).  It gives a glimpse into some of her back story, which, given that it's Vala, has got to be pretty interesting.  Geek With Curves did a write-up of the series here.  I so far have been able to stay away from the Stargate comic books (I know, I don't really know why either), but I think with this I might have to cave in.  It looks like the first four issues are out and a trade paperback collection of them is due out next month, so I went ahead and preordered it.  I will definitely let you know how it is. 

Speaking of Stargate reading material, I don't know if you are familiar with the Stargate novels that Fandemonium has been putting out, but they are mostly pretty fantastic.  They've got a pretty good batch of writers who are familiar enough with the shows and their mythology that usually each book feels just like its own stand alone episode.  There are a few hit or miss moments here or there sometimes--usually when someone doesn't get a character quite right or an author that is clearly much more familiar with SG-1 takes a stab at an Atlantis story and doesn't quite get all of the Pegasus nuances down.  But still, I highly recommend these books for anyone who misses SG-1 or Atlantis and is looking for new adventures of a better quality (or with less, um, monkey business) than fan fiction.  Which isn't to say I don't love me some Stargate fan fiction, but these are better, trust me. 

My only really big bone of contention with these books is that they have got some serious kinks going on in their marketing/distribution system.  See, in order to keep up enthusiasm in between book releases, they'll go ahead and announce new titles well before they have finished the publication process.  They'll even have them up for preorder on Amazon.  This is cool and all, except that when there are delays, you're sitting there waiting for your book that you preordered and it doesn't come for another month or three or twelve.  The SGA title Brimstone, for example, was initially slated to come out in March or May of 2008, and I preordered it on Amazon two days before its scheduled release date.  But apparently there was some sort of glitch in the approval process, and well, you know what, it still hasn't come out.  I tend to hop on Amazon once or twice a year and just preorder any of the new books that they have showing available--but after all of the delays from the last batch I swore to myself that I would never do that again.  I would just wait until each book was actually in stock to order it. But, I am kind of addicted to preordering, and also, apparently, a masochist.  So  after I finished the most recent stack of Stargate books in my reading pile, I went ahead and preordered all of the ones that were available to preorder.  Sigh.  So, when I got three emails today from Amazon telling me that there had been a delay in my order and that some items would be arriving later than originally expected, was I surprised?  Not really.  I can't even be mad about it any more, but still.  I wish they could get their act together, because honestly, that have a really good thing going. 

On the bright side, it isn't as if I don't have plenty to read while I wait for those to finally come out, do I?

Read us, Cori, please--before the dragon gets to us!

And that's just my pile of books to read.  And despite my attempts to whittle my way through it, it keeps getting bigger.  I keep saying, oh, no, I won't buy any more books, but really, how can you not buy more books if you're a bibliophile?  I am lucky that my husband is not only a patient man, but also an understanding one who happens to have the same problem.  Man, and those Outlander books?  When I get to those, I'm going to have to reread the first three in the series first anyway, because I haven't read them since the start of 2009, and I'll need to refresh my memory.  AND I'll have to take a break in whatever I am reading next month when the new Wheel of Time book comes out, because that is an immediate must-read, of course.  And I guess I shouldn't complain too much about the lack of Stargate books, because fourth and fifth down from the top on the right are actually two more Stargate books.  Hmm.  Time to stop complaining, Cori. 

Right, moving on.  So, it's Tuesday, yay!  That means a new webisode of The Guild, huzzah!  Sadly, it's the season finale, but that just means that Felicia Day and crew are hard at work on making a new season now, so I am trying to not be too sad about the end of season four.  It's not that hard, because today's episode was AWESOME.  Check it out here. 

There's also a new webisode of Legend of Neil.  For those of you unfamiliar with that series, it follows slacker Neil who is "magically" transported into the original The Legend of Zelda game.  It is not for the easily offended, but I for one find it extremely hilarious.  It manages to make fun of video games and video gamers in a loving way that you realize is really a tribute to us and an acknowledgment of how far video games have come since the original Zelda. The current season is actually the last--but I am okay with that.  I think American show makers have a lot to learn about just telling a story and ending it where appropriate, rather than stretching it out as long as possible.  I would rather have three outstanding seasons of this series than six or eight mediocre seasons.  You can check out the newest episode here.  Kill Link!


And, lastly, I shall close with...crochet!  Yay!  This past Saturday my husband and I attended the wedding of one of the guys he is in a band with (Holy Moly, they are awesome, check them out), and so of course I made the happy couple a blanket for their wedding present.  Instead of going with an actual blanket pattern this time, I went to my pattern book and picked out a cool stitch pattern and used that.  The stitch I picked out is called Diamond Mesh, and I would love to give you a link to it, but I can't, because my copy of the pattern is a photocopy from a pattern book and I don't know what pattern book it came from.  Boo me, I know.  But, here is what the stitch looks like:

Diamond Mesh

And here is the entire blanket:

Diamond Mesh Blanket by Cori (2010)

And that's all I've got for you.  Enjoy your Tuesdays!  Oh, and if you're looking for something to watch before Stargate and Caprica, there's a new episode of Glee on Fox.  It looks like they are doing their version of Only the Good Die Young, which is one of my top five favorite songs of all time, yay!