The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Movie / 2012)

This is an interesting idea of a movie. I think years from now, after all three Hobbit movies are released, is the only time we will be able to really tell if Peter Jackson made the right choice of extending the Hobbit, a 300 page fast read, into three separate three hour movies. As it stand right now, The Hobbit comes across as a lovely adventure movie, possibly stretched a little too thin.

Pop Journal: Halo 4

Halo 4 (Game / 2012)

Halo 4 is a game that happens after Halo 3. To be perfectly honest I have very little recollection of what happened in the original trilogy so this kind of felt the same as before, which isn't to say it felt bad because it felt really good. I did play this game on co-op so maybe I need to play by myself to see if I pick up on the story a little more, but as it stands is a decent vehicle for the stellar game play at work.

343 is the new studio taking over the franchise from Bungie and it's really heavy handed that they want you to know they aren't evil people who are going to destroy the game. I feel the best way that they could say that would be to make a really great game, not by saying "Thanks for trusting us..." because we did not choose you to do this.

All of that aside this is Halo. There are some new enemies with some new weapons, but 343 did little to change up the formula of the previous 4 games. There were some great ideas like having more armor abilities, but they are still a one and done thing. To be honest I played this and then immediately moved onto Borderlands 2 and this Halo 4 feels shallow compared to that. There will be a Halo 5 someday, I hope that the designers take some more chances and shake things up a bit, cause I could always play Halo 4 again, or 3... or 2 (it all seems the same).

Pop Journal: Dishonored

Dishonored (Game / 2012)

Dishonored was a treat to play. A derivative take on Assassins Creed putting you in the shoes of the Queens disgraced bodyguard out for revenge this game gives you level after level to explore and find your own path to live or let die. The story and graphics are really not the tops, but the game play more than makes up for any shortcomings there. There is an issue with the matter of choice in the game, but it's nothing that any other game relying heavily on player choice has faced.

This game is presented in a form much like Call of Duty, you are put in a level with a goal and once you accomplish everything the level has to offer you are done with it and the game takes you to a hub to go to the next level. I respect what new developers have to go through in game design, but this game was begging to be in a fully realized open world. It feels a lot like Bioshock, but even in that game you could revisit levels. In fact a lot of this game screams Bioshock but since that is one of my favorite games of all time I really didn't mind and enjoyed the journey.

The game relies heavily on choice and it's here it falters a little. Every level ends with a listing of what you did and did not do including how many people you killed and how much chaos you cause. At first I thought the game would only track my major choices in letting targets live or die, only to find out I killed one guard too many and made the level chaotic. Really there is little difference between the good and bad endings, it felt unorganic to the game to have a list after each level saying you didn't do enough. I felt the same way in LA Noire with a game mechanic that would tell you when you asked a wrong question, it made me want to reset to get the "good" ending.

Either way with the choices it was a really great first attempt, and much like last years Dead Island I can't wait to see what this studio does with this new IP next.

TMIX 38: END OF THE WORLD 2012

Pop Journal: Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall (Movie / 2012)

This is the most "Bond" of the 007 films that has stared Daniel Craig. Whereas I thought Casino Royale was a great reboot of the franchise that delivered a much more visceral installment and Quantum was a completely serviceable action film, Skyfall felt like a James Bond movie.

There are nods throughout the film to it's earlier years (perhaps too many in the third act) including the introduction of the new Moneypenny and Q. We are even introduced to an all new M with a somewhat muddled exit of the previous incarnation. There's a bad guy in here too that delivers a really great monologue about rats and that's about it.

You see, this is a movie that is really all about M and her hubris in dealing with MI6. The villain is someone she traded away like an old baseball card years ago and he is out for revenge. To do this he is captured on purpose in one of the most convoluted escape scenes in recent memory. The movie tells us that this genius planned on getting caught so he could escape and get close to M and kill her. The truth is he goes through and elaborate escape and chase scene so he can get on the streets of London and get in a car to drive to where M is. So what he really accomplished is something any Londoner on that street could have done.

Where this movie shines is when it focuses on Bond and his grappling with the onslaught of time. He's shaky, he's uncertain and he has to overcome a lot of inner turmoil to succeed. And does he? That's a strange thing because the finale is about protecting M and she dies while no one seems to feel to awful about it. Even with all of the uneven moments and plot holes I didn't mind because it was James bond and that's not the point. What is the point? A great action movie that had me enjoying it one from the opening song to the credits.

TMIX 37: LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

Here is the latest Mix! Amazing when so many of my favorite artist release new material. (Word of warning, "Some Nights" is the unedited version on Spotify)

Pop Journal: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (Movie / 2012)

There are a lot of different ways you can look at The Dark knight Rises; On it's own, as part of a trilogy or as an adaptation of a comic book. I'll try and address each of these options as i have a lot of mixed feeling s about Christopher Nolans wrap up to his Dark Knight story.

If this movie was it's own enclosed vision it would be considered an epic feat. We have three distinct acts that work really well, if only the last act lags a little bit because the bat is not on the screen a whole lot. The ideas of  "falling only to rise again" are shown throughout. Bane serves as a good catalyst for the fall and rise of Batman, but it almost felt as if they had an idea for a story and then molded a member of Batman's rouge gallery to fit the bill. The villain could have easily been The Riddler, The Penguin or Mr. Freeze, that's how much of Bane's story is changed to fit the mold here.

It's on the merits of the previous argument that "Rises" feels like a complete retread of ideas put forward in the previous 2 films. This story already had Batman take a fall at the end of the Dark Knight, why does he need to be physically taken down in the second act of "Rises"? Joker put the fate of the city and it's people in the hands of regular joes and vicious inmates and they rose to the occasion and proved the Joker wrong, here Bane turns over the city and everything goes to hell. Also if you watch all three movies back to back you are so jared by the different visual styles and locations that you can't believe for a moment all of this takes place in the same "Gotham City" (In my personal opinion the fact that DC takes place in fictional cities is what will forever place it behind Marvels place in our world).

Lastly we have the comic coming to the real world. Nolan always wanted to make things seem as if it could happen right now in our world. So here we are given Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle who is never referred to as Catwoman (but delivered my favorite performance) and a young detective who helps Batman only to have him revealed to be Robin at the end of the film (more on that later). Bane is a known terrorist who wears a mask because they say he has to. It all works, in fact it works a little to easily. I really wish he would have tried to adapt like he did with the Joker, taking a character that is bigger than life and presenting him in such a new light. Also I fell the reveal that Jospeh Gordon Levitts detectives real name is Robin is a great disservice to the film. Of course he's Robin, just come out and say it!

Maybe this film will age better with time, but the moment I left the theater I had some serious thoughts just bouncing around in my mind. It does give the trilogy a nice little ending, I think I am excited to see someone make a new film and try to embrace the mythos a little more like the recent Arkham games. One final thought: When a director continues to use the same actors across different movie worlds it get's confusing; ie: I expected Leonardo Decaprio to spring in and tell everyone they were dreaming (four actors were held over from Inception).

Pop Journal: Breaking Bad; Season 1

Breaking Bad; Season 1 (TV / 2008)

It seems every summer I take the time to catch up on come TV shows that have fallen on the wayside. Two summers ago it was Supernatural, last year Sons of Anarchy and earlier this year I caught up on Mad Men. So far I am very happy I caught up with those shows as they are among my favorite shows on TV, and now Breaking Bad seems to be following the same mold.

For only being 7 episodes long, the first season of Walter Whites decent into the grips of lung cancer and eventual Meth cooking is really powerful TV. A lot of the gimmick of the show originally was seeing Bryan Cranston take on such a departure from his role on Malcolm in the Middle, but he gives a performance worthy of the Emmy's he has received since.

The drama is intense but there is still that small element of finding humor in this kind of despair that makes the show really work. A lot of big over the top things happen, but it never gets out of control like the second season on Nip/Tuck quickly relying on shock to produce drama. Here we have a wonderful character piece about a mans decent into darkness for the higher purpose of taking care of his family once the cancer has taken him. The creator does a superb job of framing it all in a way that questions Walt's true motives as he seems to be coming out of his shell, is he doing this for his family or will the power become his main goal? We shall see soon enough.

Pop Journal: The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man (Movie / 2012)

When Batman Begins came out back in 2005 I thought that it made Tim Burton's Batman of 1989 look silly in comparison. Now with only 10 years separating Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and this film the same can be said. Yes, this is pretty much the same story told 10 years ago, but it is amazingly (pun!) different in the best possible way.

This film really wants to seperate itself from the others by looking at Peter Parkers origin. We are treated with some very brief but powerful images of his youth that frame who he has become. In fact I would say that this is much more a character piece than it is an action movie, and that only hurts the "popcorn" factor a little. With the Lizard we get the same kind of origin as many other Spidey bad guys; in that they are actually pretty decent people who get turned crazy with power only to come around at the very end.

The film looks much sharper, and like that the "Orange Filter" was no longer used like it was in the first 3. Not to measure the previous trilogy by the 3rd film, but the finale in Amazing makes Spider-Man 3 look like Bamtan and Robin. Amazing really is what the title suggests and I really want to see them take on more core characters in the years to come.

Pop Journal: Micro

Micro; Michael Crichton & Richard Preston (Book / 2011)

It was kind of sad to finish Micro if only because it will be that last Crichton novel I ever read. The characters are well drawn and the action moves along at a near perfect pace in that way Crichton could only do it. The thing I love about books most is the ability they give me to color in between the lines. I love books when they provide just enough information for my imagination to run with. Terry Brooks and Crichton do this better than any I have read, thus making them my favorite authors.

This book feels a lot like Jurassic Park in the way it is presented, and that is not a bad thing. We are given a group of eight people thrust into a world each has great knowledge off, only to find they didn't know as much as they thought they did. I found the "science" behind the action very thought provoking and they painted it with enough realism that I believed this could really be happening.

There is a bit off a breakdown at the very end as they both leave stories right at the apex leaving the reader to finish on a high. There were some pretty obvious characters in the book and you know where the drama was going to be coming from, yet there were some very surprising twists. In the end it is a great novel and serves perfectly as a coda on Crichton's long resume.

Pop Journal: Brave

Brave (Movie / 2012)

Eh.

I don't know if this movie crumbles from the weight of that "Pixar" logo above the title or if it was the long bumpy road in development, but Brave passes the grade in all avenues but still feels like a disappointment. I went in to the theater with the hopes that it would wash the taste of Cars 2 out of my mouth, and it did accomplish that but it left another aftertaste that felt a little worse. I expected Cars 2 to be what it was, the first real cash grab by the studio and Brave was to be the return of great stories and characters. Well as you can see from the above statements, it missed.

What went wrong? I can throw out a lot of things. Most films need a Villain to move the story along and here we were treated to a bear that has no real agenda, we think, and is only in the film for small phases. Second we have the witch that completely pulls us out of any immersion we were feeling with the film. Next there are the plot holes (many you could drive the Pizza Planet delivery truck through) such as Merida not immediately telling her Father what happened; Merida following the wisps three (!) times when each time something bad happened; Merida shoots for her own hand and this leads to war?

Wow, I guess it really comes down to the creators of a film trying to justify the hero or heroine making stupid decisions all the while keeping you in their corner. Ariel made a dumb deal with Ursula, Simba trusted Scar, Aladdin was about to kiss Jasmine as a nobody and then makes the leap that he must be a prince to hook up! But we forgive them because they overcome adversity and learned something about themselves. Merida just comes across as a spoiled brat who learns to love her now bear mother after one (!) afternoon of playing in the river.

So, it's really that bad? No. I hate that I feel this way, but you're Pixar dammit and I expect more from you. Brave is still better than anything Dreamworks or Sony throw out there. What really is thought provoking is the fact Disney Animation is getting stronger while Pixar is apparently going the other way. Odd that Disney's fall began around Brother Bear and now Pixar comes along with Brave (Originally titled The Bear and the Bow) and flounders some. Lesson is: Stay away from Bears.

Pop Journal: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Video Game / 2011)

I just "capped" a character on SWTOR and feel that is enough to add to the journal. The game is a bit of a conundrum and hard to really describe, so let's just say that I leveled a Bounty Hunter to 50 within a month and stopped my subscription.

There are parts of the game that work really well, but all of those parts have absolutely nothing to do with the "Massively" in MMO. The story is about as good as any MMO I have ever played, and the questing and companion systems are really nice. Most of these elements would be better suited in a single player game but feel a little disjointed and watered down in SWTOR. The best way to frame this is with the fact i married one of my companions and all it did in game was a couple of letters with some gifts. The game really didn't respond to me getting married, the same way it didn't respond to many of the choices I made in game.

I also loved the space battle mini game and liked that it gave me something to do to break up my time with PVP, questing and dungeons. That really speaks to the design philosophy of this game, you can tell Bioware wanted people to play the way they wanted to play. What felt counter intuitive to that was the traveling in the game, in that it took forever to get anywhere. When I first got my ship I was really excited about traveling the galaxy, until I had to sit through the load to get on the ship, travel, get off, walk through the same spaceport on every planet and do it all again to leave. I felt like I was playing Final Fantasy 11 again where it would take an hour to travel across the ocean. It really feels like all that travel was put in to extend play time, because like i said before, I capped in a month.

Finally I want to touch on the PVP element. They went with a truly bizarre idea of grouping all 10-49 players together and raising everyone's stats to level 49 for warzones. This means I would roll over a level 49 trooper only to be two shotted by a level 12 sorcerer. Also you ended up playing you own faction sometimes, which can only lead to tears. The biggest issue though is I played on a PVP server and only crossed paths with an Alliance player ONCE. What is the point of having a PVP server then? It just kind of sums up what SWTOR really is, a really good (sometimes great) single player game wrapped up in a ho hum MMO wrapper.

Pop Journal: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Movie / 2011)

There is some tension brewing in my head regarding Sherlock Holmes. First we had a brilliant and somewhat revisionist take from Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie in Sherlock Holmes a few years ago and I loved it. Then, something changed in between that film and it's sequel: Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock. I love both of the Holmes movies only now I look at Downey and I no longer see Sherlock, what I see is a pale ghost of what Cumberbatch brings to the small screen.

On it's own merits it is a great movie. Everything I liked about the first movie is back and Law and Downey throw verbal jabs off each other as well as anyone. This time we even got treated to Jared Harris as Moriarty, and I hate to say it again but it is no where neat as nuanced as Andrew Scotts portrayal on the BBC.

This all sounds rather doom and gloom, but again I had a really good time. I didn't like Noomi Rapace in the film, she did a great job with what was given to her it just felt her role was not as needed as the film makers wanted us to believe. In the end A Game of Shadows will have to settle for my second slot of favorite Holmes adaptations, but that in no means is a bad place to be.

Pop Journal: Mad Men; Season 5

Mad Men; Season 5 (TV / 2012)

I watched all four previous seasons of Mad Men earlier this year wanting to finally be a part of what everyone has called the greatest drama on TV. I tried to get into the show in it's first season, but didn't really give it a chance. Well, I'm glad as heck that I finally got on board because this show is about as good as a drama can be 5 years in.

This year the focus was really on Don trying to do right by his new wife and firm. He only fooled around once and that was revealed to be a fever induced hallucination. No, it seems Don Draper had finally found what made him happy in life. That is until the very last moment of the finale when Don was propositioned at a bar by a lovely lady. So there it is, the big cliff hanger going into next season: Did he or didn't he? I think it framed the season incredibly well and I hop that the next season doesn't open with a blatant answer.

Another thing that works so well for Mad Men is the way it can actually make me care for characters I loathe (Pete and Betty) in a way that was sometimes heartbreaking. Sure other characters came (Ginnsberg) and went (Price) but it was the full on return of Joan that was the highlight of this season. She and Don share a moment at a bar towards the end of the season that made me wonder why these two don't share the screen more often. Add on top of that Joan's highly controversial night out and she easily stole the season.

I am happy to add another drama into my viewing schedule, the only downside is this makes other drama's on TV seem like bad middle school plays.

Pop Journal: The Woman In Black

The Woman In Black (Movie / 2012)

It's refreshing to see a scary movie that doesn't rely on heavy doses of blood and gore to deliver some really creepy scares. The movie does go down some familiar paths to get these scares, but the journey down these well trodden paths is a lot of fun.

Daniel Radcliffe is Harry Potter, and this is really what I was thinking the entire time I watched the movie. It didn't really get in the way of the movie and he did a really good job with a script that expected him to react more and talk less. I think that with his first post Potter film he would have distanced himself from such familiar surroundings and did something modern.

It's the ending of the movie that really sold me on the entire film. I won't go into spoilers here, but the ending is a fitting way to end this scary movie. I liked that in the end, evil is evil. It's a simple idea that the Japanese have really embraced with their scary movies, but it seems that western audiences always yearn for some kind of redemption.

Pop Journal: Chronicle

Chronicle (Movie / 2012)

Chronicle is the "Batman Begins" of found footage films. It was an amazing portrait following the rise and fall of a young man granted super abilities by some "mysterious" sphere. The fact that it is presented in the same way Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity lends it the gritty reality that the gloss of a traditional production would only take away from the tone.

A lot works very well, although it takes a very long time to arrive at the incredibly riveting final act. We see the movie through Andrew's eyes and we are beat over the head with the typical everyday things that would drive a quiet teenager to go on a destruction filled flight over Seattle. He's bullied at school, his drunk father beats him around and his loving mother is sick and close to death. His only "friends" are his cousin Matt and the cool kid from school Steve, both of whom also gain the powers.

To be honest I got bored, and this movie is only 89 minutes long. It's all so heavy handed and Andrew's final break is such a big change for the character your mind is kind of swimming through the last sequence, but what a sequence. I have not been so involved with what was happening in a movie in a long time, and I really didn't know how they were going to have everything play out. The ending made the movie very recommendable and I really hope to see a sequel that explores this world further.

Pop Journal: Snow White & The Huntsman

Snow White & The Huntsman (Movie / 2012)

Well, there was a good movie buried somewhere under all of that. First thing that I have to say about this movie is that it was dark, very dark. You may say it was so dark that it looked as if it was trying to be very dark. It felt like this was a retelling that was trying to distance itself from the Disney film of 345 years ago (or something close to that). Why? I don't know. Some will say it was trying to be more epic to appeal to the "Tolkien" crowd that has been weened on big scale action, but even those had some lighter moments to bring some levity to the proceedings.

The acting ranged from passable (Kristen Stuart) to great (Charlize Theron) with Chris Hemsworth just kinda being there. The Seven Dwarfs were great and should have been brought into the picture much earlier than half way through. They at least added some character to the dark performances around them.

On a final note I want to mention the directors love affair for "cool" looking liquid effects. Yeah, we get it, the film looks distinct and different. This film falls into that territory of being a remake trying to please an audience by being radically different than what you've seen before, missing the fact that the story has enough traction on it's own merits that it has endured this long without any major change to the formula.

Pop Journal: This Means War

This Means War (Movie / 2012)

It was fun in that "Well it wasn't all bad" kinda way.

All three of the leads give really good performances, but it is not entirely surprising that Reese is the hopelessly single girl, Pine is a womanizing d-bag and Hardy is the well-intentioned emotional Brit. It all works out the way  you think it would, and like I have said before that is not all bad for this type of light hearted fare.

McG (sigh) gives us a very polished and good looking film. The action scenes are shot with a lot of flare and there are some really fun "stealth" sequences involving some really long shots.

As an action movie it delivers the goods, but it is the "romantic comedy" stories that fall flat on their faces towards the end. We are led to believe that this woman would date these two guys and have it revealed to her that they were not only lying about knowing she was dating the other but on top of that they were secret agents using her as measuring stick for which could "win" her. Really? They took the plot from "She's All That" and added spies.

Finally, Chelsea Handler should not be allowed on screen or given the opportunity to open her mouth.

Pop Journal: House; Season 8

House; Season 8 (TV / 2011)

This should be the way every show ends.

At the beginning of the year I was bummed that Cuddy was no longer in the show and that Foreman had taken her position in an incredibly nonsensical stretch for the show. With Cuddy no longer in the picture it gave the House and Wilson's friendship the spotlight, and I wonder why Cuddy was in the show to begin with. Hugh and Robert were amazing, particularly towards the end of the run, and the cancer story line at the end paid off in spades during the series finale.

Seriously, those two were so good that I cared little that the rest of the cast was relegated to brief mentions in the finale. We did get treated to some fun "After House" moments for the cast, and I am truly bummed that we won't get to see more Park continuing on as she was a fun counter to House. This is an ending that makes you forget about a lot of the highs and lows and leaves you with some hope that House has turned the corner on that whole "incredibly bitter and miserable" thing.

I felt that last years finale would have served the show well with House worry free strolling on a far away beach, but having House and Wilson ride off into the sunset was a lot more gratifying. It saddens me to see this show go as it was one of my last "destination" views for the last couple of years, but I will look back on it without any qualms with how the ending was handled.

Pop Journal: Diablo III

Diablo III (Video Game / 2012)

Blizzard delivered the goods on this game. I just recently picked up Diablo II and tried to play it and couldn't. It was terrible. That game really falls into the "If you didn't play it then, there is no nostalgia to make it any good now." So I was a little worried about Diablo III, but all of those fears were put to rest after picking up the beta and playing for a couple of hours. And now that I have "beat" the game I am happy to spend dome more hours inside the depths of hell.

This game took a long time to make, like a really long time. At first I felt that all of that seemed unnecessary as the game is fairly simple, but the polish really shows in skill systems and the pacing of the fights. I spent a couple of nights staying up real late looking for that next drop and it was hard to turn off the game. Typically I don't like the random generated dungeon games, but this proves as a huge success in that every time you play you get something new and different.

I do have a couple of issues with the story, but those are minor in the face of the greatness of everything else. Deckard Cains death is sullied by the reveal that the girl he spent the last 18 years protecting turned out to be the vessel of Diablo. You can see it coming a mile away, yet there is nothing you can do to stop it since the big reveal comes off screen. Nothing is resolved in the Leah story, hopefully they are leaving that to the eventual expansion which I greatly look forward to playing.

Pop Journal: Sherlock; Series 2

Sherlock; Series 2 (TV / 2012)

First let me lament British television descriptors and point out that if this was made in the States it would be Sherlock season 2. I don't get why they refer to seasons as series, but I will deal with it because if it was made here they would recast Watson as a woman just for publicity (this is actually really happening with next years Elemntary).

Besides the Brits being Brits, how is the show? Freaking amazing. Seriously, this is television at it's best. It's a weird show because it is really made up of three 90 minute TV movies, with both the first and third having a good enough story to make it on the big screen.

Greatest named man ever Benedict Cumberbatch shines as Sherlock and Martin Freeman (Bilbo!) give his best performance here. That being said it's Andrew Scott's Moriarty who delivers the home run here, or game winning goal since this is a BBC show. The time Sherlock and Moriarty spend on screen together is amazing, with the ending leaving many questions about the status of both characters I cannot wait for series 3.

Pop Journal: Saturday Night Live; Season 37

Saturday Night Live; Season 37 (TV / 2011)

SNL just finished its 37th season on TV, one that may be forgotten about with the upcoming season corresponding with the Presidential election. Add to that many of the cast members are leaving, (Kristen Wiig and Andy Sandberg are all but confirmed to go) this could well mark another end of an era for the perennial late night show.

What worked this year? Many new cast members carved out a niche (Pharaoh, Killam and Pedrad) while stalwarts like Hader, Sudekis and Wiig continued performing well. Stand out sketches this year would go to Fox & Friends, Secret Word and Stefon. Oh, Stefon... Hader and Meyers are easily at the top of the SNL food pyramid delivering amazing segments. Speaking of Meyers, he continues to carve his way to the top of the "Best Weekend Update Host" pile.

What didn't work? Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson, and (I hate to say it) the SNL Digital Shorts. A couple of thought on Armisen: He has to go. He does amazing work on Portlandia, a show much more suited to his talents. This last season was a mess for him, as well as Thompson who continues to get repeat characters for no apparent reason. The Digital Shorts? I don't know, but they seem to be sloppy and all over the place. The last Digital Short "Lazy Sunday 2" sums it all up: It's all been done.

One final word on Wiig. She has obviously been a standout performer over the last 7 years, but to be honest I will not miss her that much. She was best served as an addition to a sketch, never as the focus. She is so talented, with the Judy Grimes segment really showing off her comedic chops, but I feel the writing never met up with her talents. That said, she and Sandberg will leave a pretty big hole in the lineup, one that I can see a couple of upstarts (Killam and Pedrad in particular) taking advantage of next year.

Pop Journal: Supernatural; Season 7

 Supernatural; Season 7 (TV / 2011)

Well, they all can't be the best season, right?

Sam and Dean went on a journey this year, one that stripped them of many of the familiar parts of the show we've come to enjoy (Bobby, Castiel, the Impala) in an effort to have them rely more on each other in the face of... Leviathans. Who are the Leviathans? Who cares, they got destroyed and we are moving on.

Really, you start with some pretty good episodes of Castiel going "God" on everyone and then dump the Leviathans in his place. It felt as though the writers (again) could not figure out a good way of making what amounted to the culmination of all of season six mean anything, and quickly wrote it all off by the second episode. I love Supernatural when it is at it's "Monster of the Week" best, but the Leviathan threat held no real danger even though it took a lot from the boys.

The first five seaons were a little disjointed and all over the place, but they were all leading to Armageddon. Season six made some real head room dealing with the aftermath of the failed end of the world, but like I said this season ginded all of that to a halt.

What we were left with was the promise of some pretty cool stuff for next season, if the writers don't magic Dean and Castiel right out of Purgatory and never speak of it again after the first episode.

Pop Journal: The Mentalist; Season 4

The Mentalist; Season 4 (TV / 2011)

Patrick Jane, you are a clever man.

This show is the standout of all "Blue Sky" shows, which is not saying a whole lot but you take what you get. This last season threw a couple of unnecessary curve balls into the mix all dealing with the CBI crew around Jane. Van Pelt is angry and emo after killing her fiance; Cho is dating a call girl Confidential Informant; Rigsby has a kid now... and it all just takes away from Jane's screentime and the show is called "The Mentalist".

This show works best when Jane is front and center with Lisbon playing the Dean Martin to his Jerry Lewis. Again The Mentalist shows off by not giving into the "Will they, Won't they?" of other shows (I'm looking at you Castle) giving Jane and Lisbon a stronger bond than just physical attraction. It also excels at intertwining the mythos of Red John throughout the show, although it does fall prey to overly dramatic finales compared to the rest of the season.

All in all a great year for the show, I only hope the writers leave the issues of the rest of the crew to focus more on Jane's struggle to find Red John.

Pop Journal: Community; Season 3

Community; Season 3 (TV / 2011)

I don't know how this show stays on the air, but I am super happy that it does. No other show on network TV is as absurd as this show gets, and it works so well.

This year the "Greendale Seven" tackled 8-bit video games, Civil War documentaries and Law & Order all to hilarious ends. The documentary was easily one of the funniest episodes of any show this year, and 2 Broke Girls continues to get huge ratings while Community lives on the bubble. This upsets me.

I'm glad Community will get to live on, although I would be happy anyway as it has given me a great 3 season of laughs I can return to again and again much like Arrested Development before it.

There were some "Dark" moments this year, and they seem to put more in just too see how much they could get away with. I didn't mind them all to much, but hope to see less as we move to Friday nights graveyard next year.talk about Dark.

Pop Journal: 30 Rock; Season 6

30 Rock; Season 6 (TV / 2011)

I still watch 30 Rock. I do, and to tell the truth it feels more like I'm doing it as a responsibility and not because I want to. Is it still funny? Yes, at least I think so until I measure it against some other comedies I watched this year (Community; Happy Endings; New Girl; Parks and Rec; etc).

I blame Jenna for most of my issues I have with this year. Perfect example of this is when I watch my favorite episode of 30 Rock (and quite possibly my favorite half hour of TV ever): MILF Island. It is so good. It is TV comedy perfection... and Jenna is not in the episode. In fact, with the early money issues she missed a lot of episodes, only I didn't miss her. I feel bad as I write this because it has nothing to do with Jane Krakowski, just her character is best served as a catalyst and not the A or B story of the week.

There were some stand out episodes this year, with "The Tuxedo" feeling most like the show at its creative heights. And much like Fringe, 30 Rock is getting 13 episodes to tie up the story and retire to repeat viewings on Comedy Central. A good thing, I think knowing there is an end will give the writers a lot of good things to work with and we can hopefully leave on  the show on a high.

Pop Journal: 11/22/63

11/22/63; Stephen King (Book / 2011)

This was a very enjoyable read, much like the other King novel I read earlier this year: Under the Dome. This was presented in the first person which threw me off a little at first, and the truth is I heard King's voice more in the telling than that of the main character Jake.

The story can be broken up into the first time event and the actual assassination of JFK, the novels name sake. The first event in Derry Maine was much more of a compelling tale simply because King gets to paint his own fictitious story with overt foreshadowing to the second act. Once Jake arrives in Dallas the story hits some major pacing issues and I felt myself forcing a lot of pages through quickly. The finale falls a part a little, due to the fact we get a 40 page explanation at the end that is not really an explanation at all. This is a common trait in a lot of King's books and sometimes I wish he would leave well enough alone. It's my "Groundhog's Day" theory: If the movie explained why Bill Murray was living the same day over and over again it would kill the movie.

Even with all of that I enjoyed the read a lot. I felt a real connection with the characters King painted and save for the middle 300 pages (I know...) I couldn't put it down, which in the end is how I measure a good book.

Pop Journal: How I Met Your Mother; Season 7

How I Met Your Mother; Season 7 (TV / 2011)

First things first: I hate how CBS handled HIMYM this season. In fact, the same can be said for how CBS has always treated the show, but this year was awful. For the last 3 months we had one new episode maybe every other week. This made it very difficult to follow. The show itself? Legendary.

I just wrote a blurb for 30 Rock's sixth season lamenting it, but HIMYM is still as strong as it ever was. We didn't get a whole lot closer to meeting the mother, but we did find out who Barney is getting married to. Marshal and Lily are still the greatest couple in TV history and now we get a baby in the next season! The Quinn storyline felt a little weak as we all expected the eventual reveal and as such didn't buy to much into it.

One last thing: The writers need to stop making new history. Too many flashbacks of situations that didn't happen on air (much like the "Trilogy" episode) in a show with such a strong library that you can mine what's already there instead of shoehorning these events in.

Pop Journal: Once Upon a Time; Season 1

Once Upon a Time; Season 1 (TV / 2011)

I finished it.

I know, not a glowing review, but I made through this mess of a season. Wow, how many times can we come back to Prince Charming and Snow White deciding to be together and then call it off? I mean, really!?! They crammed ten seasons of Ross and Rachel into one season, and it made me want to hurt myself.

But, I finished it.

I think a lot of it comes with the hope that this is the first season and they will find their voice in the second season. The show became a lot more watchable in the end, and I am interested enough to tune in next year.There is a good show somewhere beneath all of this unnecessary mellow-drama.

Also, the show introduced us to the heretofore unknown eighth dwarf: Stealthy. So there's that.

Pop Jounal: Fringe; Season 4

Fringe; Season 4 (TV / 2011)

What can be said about this last year? A lot happened? Questions got answered? Crazy things happened? People are the same but, wait for it, there not?

I don't know.

What I do know is I have a lot invested in Olivia and Peter staying together and that made this years journey enough. The opening reveal of the universes being "bridged" and Peter being erased from time felt a little off, especially with the hindsight of what happened since. What we were left with were the same but different people we had seen the previous 3 years, including the already different alternate universe people. So if season 1 was timeline A, and the alternate universe was timeline B, after this we now have timeline A to C and B to D...

SO UNNECESSARY!

It really felt like the show runners said: "We have 3 million people watching and no one else will, so let's go way out there... for the fans." Like we asked for this mess, and I loved most of the season! Why is that? It was a mess but still one of my favorite shows of the year, and now we have a final 13 episodes next year to wrap it all up. Let's hope that it's as much of a mess again next year.

Pop Journal: Parks and Recreation; Season 4

Parks and Recreation; Season 4 (TV / 2011)

Yes, it's time to talk about Parks and Recreation. I feel that my words can't do my favorite comedy this season justice. So I'll let them speak for themselves.

Andy: First of all, you did the right thing by hiding underneath this table.

Tom: He's just playing hard ball. Let me tell you how it's going to go
down. In a few minutes, we'll walk in there, we'll give him our
demands, and then BAM -- I start crying.

Ben: Hypothetical crisis: Leslie just tried to answer a question, but audibly farted and then threw up. Spin.
Chris: Leslie Knope is literally overflowing with ideas for this town. And speaking about methane, have you heard about her plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions?

Ann: I bought this Mackerel at the Supermarket. I've been standing in the water with the fish on my hook for 30 minutes. I saw it on an episode of I Love Lucy. Pathetic? Maybe, but it feels pretty good to have a bunch of little boys be super in to me. That came out wrong.

Leslie: It's like dealing with a strict mother who I am confusingly attracted to. Ben is like a MILF.

April: I don't want to do things. I want to not do to things like you taught me.

Ron: Never half ass two things, whole ass one thing.