Seasons Continue: Arrow Season 2

Welcome back to Day 3 of Seasons Continue. Hope everyone got stuffed full of bird and are billious for it. Yeah I didn't feel like writing on Thanksgiving. Grumble at your leisure. With that in mind I thought we would catch up with DC comics favorite archer and see where we left off. After narrowly escaping a duel to the death with Malcolm Merlin (John Barrowman of Doctor Who, Desperate Housewives, Torchwood, Arrow and The Flash), thrashing the sesmic quake devices, the Glades via Starling City have collapsed, homes and lives destroyed and Queen's mother sent to prison. Can the city be saved?  This is Arrow Season 2.

This hood doesn't make me look silly, right?

Ollie (Stephen Amell of Hung, Private Practice, Heartland, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Arrow and The Flash) has sought refuge back on the island for 5 months as Starling City starts to lick clean its wounds. Diggle (David Ramsey of Con Air, The Good News, All of Us, Dexter, Outlaw and Blue Bloods) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards of Soldiers of the Apocalypse, Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story, Arrow, Arrow: Blood Rush, Normal Doors, Vixen and The Flash) make their way to the island to warn Ollie that his company needs him as much as the city does and that what he did last year mattered to so many. His best friend Tommy died thinking he was a murderer and he cannot go back to that path.

He no longer has the list to operate on and must expand on his crime fighting status other than just attacking one percenters. Felicity upgrades the Archer's Den (My name, they went with Arrow Cave because that's original) with the latest tech,decryption devices and hacking software while Arrow is leaving wounded, alive men versus corpses. Laurel (Katie Cassidy of 7^th Heaven, Black Christmas, Spin, Supernatural, Harper's Island, Melrose Place, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Arrow The Wolves at the Door) lost Tommy and blames the vigilante for not being able to save him and thus organizes a task force to capture "The Hood" at all costs.

Tommy, can I have your suits when you die?

Meanwhile, gun toting designer impostors are using The Hood as a cover to lash out at the city officials that failed to protect them, FEMA medicine trucks are being hijacked and there seems to be a man or woman behind the shadows of the fate of Starling City. Little sister Thea (Willa Holland of The O.C., A Summer in Genoa, Legion, Straw Dogs, Tiger Eyes, Gossip Girl and Arrow) is managing Ollie's nightclub pretty damn well while her bartender/boyfriend Roy Harper (Colton Haynes of The Gates, Look, Teen Wolf, Arrow, Arrow: Blood Rush and Triumph) is throwing himself into danger, trying to do all the things his hero archer can without any of the training.

Ghosts of the past come to haunt the city of the present as Team Arrow has to unite and stop the oncoming dangers that lie ahead. Are they up for it? Can they give 110%? Will they fail the city?

This season we get some DC villain favorites like the Bronze Tiger (a terrifying bad ass martial artist that can go toe to toe with Batman) Deathstroke the Terminator, Ras Al Ghul and his League of Assassins and the creation of The Suicide Squad so it definitely did not lose the stride it built up for Season 1 but this crazy train just picked up a little more steam.

The cue card says stare off with knowing..WTF does that even mean??!!

Serial Week: The Phantom

Welcome back to Serial Week were we are not looking to profile into the psyche of a killer. Yeah I know it just doesn't sound interesting now, but how about another guy in tights? Huh? You seem to like those. Based on the comic strip created by Lee Falk. This character has managed short stories, novelizations, cartoons, video games and even a theme park. Many tremble for the might of his majestic purple clad terror on bullies and criminals and his inherent jungle powers. This is The Phantom.

Many of you have commented on my tights.  Stop that.

So glossing over the 1996 Robert Evans produced film The Phantom which...kinda a stinker but still superior to the Dick Tracy flick, our costume clad crimefighter operated out of Bangalla, a completely fictional country. Our hero made his way to the comic strip in February 17, 1936. There is a tale of a Ghost Who Walks, an indestructible being that guards the innocent, devotes his time into disrupting criminals' lives and dispenses justice.

Hailing from Columbia Pictures, our cliffhanger serial stars The Phantom (Tom Tyler of Stagecoach, The Talk of the Town, Clancy of the Mounted, Adventures of Captain Marvel, Border Vigilantes and She Tore a Yellow Ribbon) as his second superhero role as he was Captain Marvel as well and brother this guy is built. Getting his start in Tinseltown as a movie extra and stuntman, at 6'1" his weight-lifter build and strong jaw landed him many a role and the serials were no different. With him at his side his faithful wolf (German Shepard for safety reasons), Devil.

The "tribes" are shockingly enough in red face.

Our fifteen parter opens with a expedition to rediscover the Lost City of Zoloz...yes it is spelled Zoloz. Guess Ziox was taken for The Final Sacrifice...oh Rowsdower.  Ahem, moving on, the location of the city can only be found of seven separate pieces of ivory, three of which are in Professor Davidson's possession. His partner, Doctor Bremmer intends to use the lost city as a secret airbase for his country that didn't seem important enough to name. All hail my nationality of on unknown origin!

The Phantom steps in but Doctor Bremmer is able to dispatch him off this mortal coil but as the legacy hero goes, one will step in for the other, The Phantom's son Geoffrey Prescott takes on the mantle of the Phantom to not only avenge his father but to do right by the innocent that need his help.

Not unlike Batman or Pulp book hero Doc Savage, The Phantom does not possess superhuman powers but must rely on his wits, strength, skill with a .45 and his reputation as a profound badass.

Well Dave, you have jungle fever. I'm writing you a prescription for more cowbell.

My take on the serial? Given the less than stellar creation of the 96 Phantom I found this to be a tight script, well balanced cast and frankly I didn't want to go head to head with this guy. He moved like a boxer. The elder Phantom was barrel chested and about in his 70s and yet he looked like he could curb stomp a few guys. Tyler as the younger Phantom moves like a boxer and a guy that has been in more than a few street fights in real life so yeah I was impressed. His line delivery was a bit wooden but so was Gary Cooper's and not many complained about him. Jeanne Bates' performance of Diane Palmer comes off adventurous, sassy without the sneers and arrogance of Kristy Swanson's performance in the 96 film. She had feisty behavior, verve and a decent heart where her man was concerned.

Any Phantom fan would easily enjoy this serial, so give it the once over. Sorry 2010 fans but no biker helmets.

Oh?  I look younger?  Well my ectoplasm was feeling generous.

Superhero Week: The Amazing Spider-Man

Slide on back to the groovin' funkadelic 70's when a popular trend past bellbottoms, a recession on oil and DC and Marvel comics each had a foothold in TV and movies.  Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter, Isis with Joanna Cameron, The Incredible Hulk starring Lou Ferrigno, Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin.  Keeping this in mind, Marvel took one of its most recognized characters and placed it in the hands of E.W. Swackhamer director of tv pilots and episodes ranging from 27 pilots, 18 were placed on the air.  Titles such as: Bewitched, MASH, S.W.A.T. and Murder She Wrote to name a few.  Tackling a popular Marvel Comic book character and making it relevant to the audience of the day, Danchuck Productions distributed The Amazing Spider-man TV Movie through CBS in September 14, 1977. 
This hour and a half tv movie is to cover the life and transformation of Peter Parker to his costumed identity Spider-man.  Nicholas Hammond of the Sound of Music (Fredich), Eight is Enough, Falcon Crest tackles the dual identity in this TV movie to expand into two seasons of 5 episodes and a movie both seasons.

Okay enough of the information background.  So kids grab your tights, stock up on web fluid and film, this is The Amazing Spider-man.

hehe now to press ham on the window.

Spoilers can climb walls!...

 

We hearken back to 1977 were corduroy got turned into sports coats, and the LTD was the size of a PT boat.  A barrage of strange robberies by respectable citizens seems to be occurring across the streets of New York.   The police are baffled at the standings of these crimes and the newspapers and TV stations are informed by some unknown figure that he is holding a ransom on the city in the sum of 50 million dollars or he will have ten random New Yorkers commit suicide via his command.   Offhand, I was thinking hmm don’t look at it as losing several voters Mr. Mayor but housing opening up.  Budding scientist Peter Parker is hard at work attending an experiment involving radioactive materials, when a spider happens to be in this well constructed plexi-glass encasement.  I kid you not, that thing looked so flimsy they might as well been drinking their “radioactive material”.  Said spider vacates the chamber and bites Parker passing on its genetic material or abilities thus creating a human spider. OoOoOoo.    Our fledgling hero is attempt to pawn his less than interesting photos to Jonah Jameson (Veteran TV actor David White Have Gun-Will Travel, Saints and Sinners and Perry Mason) when the bulletin of the blackmailer comes piping in the room.  

Ha! I am like ninja in the shadows...only brightly colored.

Now to be far given the limited casting, it is necessary that Parker gets into these predicaments and scenarios to sell the hero aspect.  I about laughed myself into a stupor seeing the captain in charge of Homicide was the nutter JC from Sidehackers (Michael Pataki of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and a reoccurring character on McCloud) and to be honest Hammond looks as nervous as a kid on pot for the first time but I digress.   My main issue was the heart of the matter.  Why does Parker become Spider-man if the first place, the storyline skipped having an Uncle Ben (Parker’s uncle not the rice) and his tragic death that could have been obverted if Peter had stopped a robber.  It was the crux of the character, the driving force that makes him the responsible man that he is.   The TV movie skips all that so in essence you are left wondering why this guy suddenly wants to help his fellow man by running around in tights, scaling buildings and web swinging all over NYC.  Admittedly the stunts were not bad even with the Chinese meat slappers as a Foley effect.  

What’s that you ask?  Never heard of this notion?  Foley artists are required to create necessary sound effects to enhance the movie or tv show.  Versus the traditional sound effect of a thrown punch which is a boxing glove against a bag, the meat slappers were two good sized paddles with steaks strapped to this that would be smacked together creating a more vicious sound.  While being a cool sound effect, still a waste of a couple decent NY strips you ask me.  

Morning jog...in tights...on a roof...don't be haters.

The superimposed or blown up pictures that Parker is crawling along was a relatively inexpensive and creative idea.  When it came to most of the wall-crawling that effect was used to super impose Hammond on the surface he was climbing.  The harness, rope and interface gear was rigged through his street clothes and often the costume to jerk Hammond up in the air force more of a wide angle shot and pan up with him.   All in all this was the first time we saw Spidey live and in color if you will.  I have found memories of this growing up but yeah even I have to poke fun at it.  Still I have to admit it is less camera jerky than say certain CGI infused films of the same name.   So if you pine over the Shaun Cassidy hairstyle or you just need some deep bass theme music with a little dash of orchestra, grab a VHS or DVD of the Amazing Spider-Man