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I will freely admit it: I love Doctor Who. I am a recent convert, I will admit, but am now caught up on the most recent seasons of Doctor Who, from 2005 to present, with the 9th and 10th Doctors. I have even started checking out some of the older Dr. Who programs and have to admit, while the “effects” are pure, grade A cheese, the stories are quite good.

I say all this to lead up to this Dalek costume. It is awesome! The wearer is in a wheelchair that has been rigged up to look like the fearsome Dalek.

(via Make)

Matthew TV Shows costume, Dalek, Doctor Who

Dear Heroes writers, producers, etc:

The show stinks. I am sure you have heard this before. And perhaps you have even been told it is because of specific plot-lines or characters. But I am here to tell you the problem isn’t always with the story-line or even the characters: It is because you use the same plot device over and over again. I call this plot device “I must do this alone”.

See how they are all standing there - together? Yeah, this never actually happens in the show.

Let’s look at some quick examples from this season. Peter Patrelli won’t join forces with Noah or anyone else, because he feels that he alone must atone for the “sins” that they all committed.

Matt Parkman sees Sylar in his head (which is actually a cool plot-line that has been dropped the last 2 episodes). He knows he needs help, but he is going to do this alone.

Tracy Sanders also turned down Noah, because she wanted to go it alone. Now, in her case, she changed her mind. Decided to take Noah up on his offer. But by this time the “I must do this alone” syndrome had hit Noah too, so he turned her down.

Claire Bennet has almost always, to some degree, wanted to do it alone. That certainly hasn’t changed this season.

Even the new, rather lame, “hero” that can see sound as color wanted to just deal with everything alone.

The result is that the villains, this year in the form of carnies, are able to mess with each hero rather easily since they don’t even compare notes, let alone work together. This is lame. It is boring. I just keep wondering why NONE of these people have learned, in four years, that working together is what works best.

Toward the end of season 3 I even had a small hope that this would happen, as a lot of them sat down in a diner and discussed recreating The Company, but for good purposes. This could have been very cool. Heroes working together, finding other heroes and fighting villains - this would have made for some solid story-lines and episodes. So of course this didn’t happen - because everyone felt they needed to, you got it, do this alone.

Look - the lone hero thing can be awesome. Batman pulls it off. So does Spider-Man. Superman too. On your own show it is perfectly fine when Sylar is on his own. Because he is evil (and, when you give him a good story, awesome). But this is an ensemble cast - not a show about one hero. So having everyone just stay apart and act like snotty, overly dramatic teenagers is boring. It also leads to story-lines being dropped, since you have so many running around (like the Matt Parkman/Sylar story-line and the Tracy story-line, which have just gone away) I am not asking for the Justice League, or corny costumes - just a group that even loosely works together would be nice.

Please - I want to like this show. I love most of the characters - you have a top-notch cast. But you need to change things up a bit and make a new rule around the writing table: No more “I have to do this alone” story-lines.

Sincerely,

Me.

Matthew TV Shows Heroes

In writing this, I feel a little bit like I am encroaching on Charon’s territory here by complaining about Arby’s. However, I will forgo complaining about their food - this is easy for me since I never eat there. Yet, despite this avoidance of shoe-leather on a bun, Arby’s still manages to reach out with its horsey sauce covered claw and grab me.

Several years ago I and a car-pooling co-worker were heading home. It was my day to drive. I turned out of the office driveway and onto the main road - from there it is a mere 200 yards to the expressway.

I didn’t make it.

Instead, I turned and after successfully navigating the first 100 yards was broadsided by a guy turning left into Arby’s. He couldn’t even wait for traffic to clear he wanted it so badly. He hit my car hard! Airbags were deployed even (slight digression - airbags are not at all like they are depicted in the movies and TV - they are not soft pillows that inflate and slowly deflate - rather they inflate quickly, hard as a rock, then deflate so fast you don’t even have time to register that they went off - they are also painful - and I am glad they were there).

My car was totaled. So was his. Everyone was ok except for some bruising. While waiting for the police and tow trucks, the fellow that hit me - who never even spoke to me, let alone apologized for his action - went into the Arby’s and got his lunch.

I am not kidding. That dude really wanted his Arby’s.

Don't confuse this with the Justice League

Now, let’s jump forward to the here and now. My wife, kid and another mom and kid went to Arby’s for dinner, post-swimming lesson for the kids. I was able to avoid this by being at work. However, when my 4-year-old got home she was very exited because of the toy she got with her Arby’s kid meal. She said the toy was a “Super-Friends” toy. It was really a Justice League toy, but I decided that at 4 she was allowed the error. At 5, though, we will have a long discussion over the differences, which are many.

This toy was a Martian Manhunter Bobble-head. Made from paper. Full assembly required.

“C’mon!” you might be thinking, “How hard can it possibly be? It is just paper right?”

You need new thoughts.

Yes, indeed it was just paper. In fact, it was just “slot A into slot B”. Problem is, it was super-cheaply made. This means that nothing fit together quite right. Additionally I am trying to put this together with a 4-year old saying “Why couldn’t this just come together so I could play with it? They should have had this together so I could play with it. Why didn’t they just make it together? I really want to play with this daddy, why didn’t they do that?”

This went on for the full 15 minutes it took me to assemble this stupid toy.

So how did it turn out?

I hate you Arby's

Check out the picture. The head does not bobble because the weird spike that I put the head on goes through the top. So it just sits there. The moment my daughter touched it the arm fell off. I mean, yeah, it could be how I put it together, but I am going to blame the cheap toy itself. I mean, sheesh, what is a kid supposed to do with this exactly? Stare at it? Anything else and it falls apart. Which is did in about 10 minutes.

Listen, Arby’s, giving away Justice League stuff is awesome - but please make it something not made of paper. Also, I am with my daughter on this one - let’s make it fully assembled, ok?

Thanks.

Matthew Random Thoughts Arby's, cheap toy, martian manhunter