Rough Trade Friday: Flash Gordon (SciFi TV series)
M*****F***ing talentless hacks!! How can anyone ruin a concept as cool as Flash Gordon? The concept stinks to high heaven of camp. Of course I've been watching this travesty since the pilot. Now I'm the sort of old fashion fella that doesn't make snap viewing decisions based off pilots. Lots of things change, they're trying to show off the concept, costuming isn't set, yada yada yada...but people its been five episodes and I am itching to tell you how bad this piece of shite really it (with one notable exception--the absolutely gorgeous hawkman from last week).
This is a re-imagining of the classic comic strip, it purposely distances itself from the 1980 movie with the most excellent soundtrack ever (God, I love Queen/queens, whatever...). It is also decidedly low-budget. Flash is an athlete still living at home, who father he believed died in a fire thirteen years ago. In the pilot he discovers that his father actually discovered "rift" technology (I so see a lawsuit coming from Jerry O'Connell) and stepped through, never to heard from again. Much like I wish for this show. Flash's motivation is to find his father. Family duty from the Mamma's boy, how shocking. The one thing I do think the get right is to capture the tribal nature of Mongo from the early comic strips, but that is obliterated by absolutely the worst casting of Ming ever. That man is no more intimidating or evil than Halo Kitty.
Look, normally I recommend something to watch for the weekend , but all I can say is RUN RUN RUN! Do your self a favour and go out and get plastered instead. You'll have less of a headache in the morning that way.
The Boy Blunder
Posted to Trade Paperback on 21 September 2007
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: Flash Gordon, Rough Trade Friday, SciFi, utter shite
Boy Meets Hero by Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia
Yeeeeeah... I heard the villain was more like Mick the Merciless. Weird that you need more than just nostalgia-value to make a hit show.
But, they're clearly not going for nostalgia. Neither was Battlestar Galactica though so...
I watched the first 2 episodes and then they started building up unwatched on my TiVo and then I just deleted them all. It really was painful.
It saddens me to see that they didn't take the camp of it all and really run with it. I mean really run - buy up some WETA rayguns, slap people into really ridiculous suits, get actors who literally eat the scenery around them and try to follow the most extravagant plots that ever came from the serial.
I mean, Battlestar Galactica is fantastic for it's realistic approach, but if you don't have Olmos and his mighty moustache, it's much better to delve in to the realm of absolute absurdity.