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Greetings, gay geeklings!

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, October 16th, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center on Halsted. Geek trivia! Futurama! Halloween stuff! Planning our group movie outings! An announcement of the book selection that we'll be discussing in our November meeting! Come on down, and KNEEL before, Zod! Ahem.

Okay, so here's some geeky stuff culled from the past week.

Yep, no film review this week. I know that you're all crushed, but I've been going to see a lot of non-genre movies like "The Darjeeling Limited" and "Elizabeth 2: Electric Boogaloo." Hardly the geeky fare that this blog demands (unless you're an indie-movie geek or a history-buff geek). Steven has pointed out to me that we're mostly scifi geeks, so that's where the focus of the group will remain. I really wish that there were more cool movie openings on the horizon. I've been invited to see "The Kingdom" this Thursday (not feeling too excited about that, really).

On to a quick smattering of television reviews:

HEROES – The last couple of episodes have been better, but am I alone in feeling that there's just been a glut of missed opportunities? Instead of starting off with a bang, the story has been slowly and wheezily crawling up to speed. It's as if the producers, in a slavish and uninspired effort to imitate the success of last year, have decided to replicate the first season's pacing waaay too closely (the audience liked it once; let's give it to them again!). Last year, events came to a full boil very slowly. That made sense. There was a lot of set-up and exposition to get out of the way, and we were being introduced to new characters and story threads every week. This year, we're already familiar with the characters, and they were all left in really interesting predicaments at the end of last season, with most of their stories finally colliding with one another. But instead of progressing and moving the story forward, it feels as if most of the characters have been rebooted, and they're back at square one. It's really frustrating. I enjoyed tonight's episode a great deal more than the first three installments since neither Hiro nor Peter Patrelli were included (love their characters, HATE their current storylines). And it would really add to the sense of danger if Claire's family actually behaved as if they were living life on the run. Claire's dad having to take a crappy job in a copy shop seems like the only realistic turn (and like poetic justice). Otherwise, they've moved into an even BIGGER suburban home, none of them have colored or cut their hair to disguise their appearance, little brother Kyle doesn't seem to have anything resembling an adolescent reaction to what's happening, and they gave Claire a frakking CAR, as a present! Yeah, living life on the lam is tough. At least throw in a single line explaining their conspicuous and unlimited wealth (Claire's dad was an embezzler). My favorite scene was Micah's older cousin taking out the thief with an extreme wrestling move. The cameo by Nichelle Nichols is pretty nifty too. Yatta!

PUSHING DAISIES – God, I love this series. Just great, giddy fun. I don't know when I've laughed out loud more at a television show. The big unexpected musical number with Kristin Chenoweth breaking into "Hopelessly Devoted To You," and dancing with Digby the dog just knocked my socks off. Oh, and I'm really eager to see Swoozie Kurtz and Ellen Greene back on the show (they were SO funny in the pilot). Such a small cheese box.

BIONIC WOMAN – I've been sticking with it, but I'm just not feeling it. I mean this show's not a terrible way to spend your time, and I still dig Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Corvus (the original bionic woman), but the whole show feels like a lot of empty posturing and clichés. I find it difficult to care about anything on the show, and Isaiah Washington feels really out of place. Not giving up on it quite yet. For now, I'm still in.

Finally a tiny smidgen of movie news:

STAR TREK (2008) – Yep, most of the cast is confirmed now (except for Kirk and McCoy). Simon Pegg ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz") as Scotty is just plain GENIUS! John Cho ("Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle") is Sulu. I honestly don't know what to think of him, so I guess I'll have to go rent that movie now (s'okay 'cause Doogie is in it too). The two hopefuls for Jim and Bones are Chris Pine ("Just My Luck") and Karl Urban ("Pathfinder"). I'm not so sure about Pine, who seems plenty confident and cocksure (requisites for playing Kirk) but he carries those qualities like a chill fratboy. Feh. He IS awfully pretty, though. Karl Urban sounds great! I might not have pictured him in the role, if I hadn't seen him in the second "Bourne" film, completely transformed from his performance as Éomer in LOTR. Get him to sign on already! Trek on!

Until next week.

Cobra!