Grumpasaurus.com

Comedy gold… also remarkably believable

“troglodyte homunculus” … awesome!

Good times.

Retroactive fines 5 years later for nude buttocks.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue.

The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted “multiple, close-up views” of the woman’s “nude buttocks” according to an agency order issued late Friday.

Oh, do fuck off censors, would you?

Old media worldwide fights tooth and nail against new, enabling technology that they don’t control. See how Nine net takes on IceTV in court over their time shifting technology.

Free-to-air web the Nine Network goes to court Monday in a bid to stop startup media company IceTV from using its TiVo-style technology to block ads on free-to-air television.

IceTV uses a set-top box and weekly TV sked to allow users to record their fave skeins and skip ads for just A$3 ($2.25) a week.

Nine will argue in court that providing its schedule is a breach of copyright, although the schedule is made available to feevee customers and even to printed TV guides.

This is just an inevitable delay in the technology’s widespread availability, like it is everywhere else. Granted, in America the big media companies have been able to push back our Fair Use rights with odious technology initiatives such as DRM/”Trusted computing,” and hardware interfaces such as HDMI and non-modifiable, non-skippable DVD menus, and legal efforts such as the DMCA… but in Australia they’re apparently still a bit behind the times.

What will happen is that eventually every show will run inline advertisements (like soccer has to, with the stadium ringed with ads and small placements by the clocks) and egregious product placements (more egregious, I should say). It’s the only way for advertisers to ensure that they’re getting the eyeballs their consumerist drives require of them. Eventually, the 22 minute show in a 30 minute slot is going to go the way of the dodo.

I’m finally getting around to watching the Battlestar Gallactica series, which many of my friends think is the bomb.

I really wish I could see what they see, because while it’s got some good moments, it’s far more miss than hit. The style is engaging on the surface, but the writing … dear, god, the writing! … is so hamhanded in certain episodes, I feel like they wrote the damn script in crayon.

Some of the characters are engaging, and the acting by Edward Olmos, Mary McDonnel, and sometimes Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff (she’s no Amanda Tapping, though), James “Gaius” Callis, and Aaron “the Chief” Douglas is quite good. Tricia Helfer gets the best lines and she delivers them pretty well. Except for the overwrought faith v. reason bits. Really, enough with that god shit, please. I get that the Cylons are the religious fanatic terrorist allegory already. Also, I’m watching the first episode where she has to do more than be Gaias’ conscience and… she’s not doing so hot.

The rest of the acting is pretty abysmal, though. Grace Park? Astoundingly bad. I’ve seen high school acting better than her painful blocking and non-emoting (she’s great in minor lesbian french kissing scenes, though). Seriously, who cast her? She’s hot of course, but how she made it through auditions, I’ll never know. Maybe she works for scale.

As bad as the acting is, it pales in comparison to some of the dogshit episdoes. For example, “Litmus”, while I agree with the message they are attempting to convey, was as amateurish an effort as I’ve seen since that piece of shit Eragon. Other episodes are just as shoddy and as Litmus and their quality is getting worse. The dialogue is crap, the plot is filled with situations that are created for the writers’ convenience rather than emerging organically (not to mention the deus ex machina), and the illogical ridiculousness of the twists overwhelm what should be hip and cool.

Also, the Cylon CGI is cheap and cheesy. Why are they bipedal, anyway? And why the weird mix of actual physics with cliche’d WW2 dogfight moves? And enough with the shaky handcam already, please. Ye gods.

Whatever. What I’ve learned is that a moderately well executed series with some average-at-best looking guys and superhot women in positions of power will sell loads and loads of advertising.