Review: Angel & Faith #2 - "Live Through This, Part 2"

PLOT SUMMARY


Faith, Nadira and other slayers get into a big fight breaking up a "drug deal" between a demon and some vampires. During the fight, Nadira gets shot in the leg, but a shadowy figure comes to her rescue. The demon gets away with the cash, but Faith recovers the "merchandise", which happens to be Mohra Demon blood. Faith reconvenes with Angel, who admits to being the shadowy figure, and is still hell bent on bringing Giles back.

He and Faith go to a demon bar as part of Angel's plan to investigate the source of the blood. During a fight, they rip off a demon's third arm, then follow him back to his supplier, where he goes to get the blood to re-grow the arm. Angel explains to Faith what the blood does, and how he'll use it to revive Giles's body (his soul is another issue). They crash the place and, after another fight, interrogate the lead demon to find the source of the blood.

In a flashback scene, Faith and Giles share a conversation in which she wanted to rectify one of her mistakes from the past -- the killing of the professor in "Graduation Day". Giles explains that resurrection isn't possible and "there are...mistakes we can't unmake," which is the lesson she wants to impart on Angel. In the issue's final page, Nash and Pearl (the new baddies) track down the three-armed demon, Kurth, and force him to take them to the Mohra Demon

REVIEW


Covers


The primary cover is once again drawn by Steve Morris, who is the regular cover artist on this series (and Buffy Season 9). I love Morris's likenesses, but his work has a more ethereal quality than the internal pages, leaving me to lean more toward the alternate Rebekah Isaacs cover. It's a true prview of what you're going to get inside the issue, right down to the darker background you'd expect from an Angel comic (he can't exactly fight during the day).


Score: 4 out of 5



Story


I think what I love most about the plot of this issue is how it advances the overall arc of the series while also being action-packed at the same time. There are three major fight scenes in the issue, but there's also some decent exposition going on with the fighting. And while there was still considerable internal monologue/narration, Faith's thoughts weren't nearly as hard to follow as the Giles thinking/spellcasting scene from the first issue.

Mostly, though, I love how this issue ties things into the television series, both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". For the longest time, the Dark Horse comics have kind of lived in their own world, either because of necessity (the pre-Season 8 non-canon comics) or invention (Season 8 kind of went to its own place). This issue has moments -- not just "moments" but key plot and character driving moments -- that tie directly in to things that happened on the television shows. That's the kind of thing that takes a good tie-in comic to the next level.

However, it does need to be pointed out that when Faith references the professor's daughter, it creates a slightly weird continuity issue with the show. When she showed up at his apartment to kill him, she asked if anyone else was there, and he said no, adding that he was a lifelong bachelor. Now, it's entirely possible that a lifelong bachelor would have a daughter -- Faith didn't mention any other family that was mourning his death -- but that's certainly not the vibe I got from the show. Still, the issue is Joss overseen and approved, so we have to let Christos Gage get away with this bit of narrative reworking.

Score: 4 out of 5


Art


I really can't say enough about how much I love Rebekah Isaacs's work on this series. She's really got Eliza Dushku's likeness down after just two issues, not just in terms of looks, but also facial expressions and poses. This series also continues to be bloodier than we've seen from past Buffy or Angel comics, and Isaacs handles that without turning it into a gore-fest.

Also, we get to see Angel's vampire face in this issue, and it looks very good -- like it did on the TV series, which is to be expected, but hasn't always been the case in the comics. Still, my favorite page of the issue is the first one of the flashback scene, with Faith talking to Giles, where Faith is wearing a Batman logo T-shirt. It's the kind of subtle thing you don't always notice, but good artists put in for fans. Also, there's 100% consistency with Giles's apartment between this issue and the last one, which, again, should be the case but doesn't always happen. It's a sign that Isaacs is paying attention to detail, and for that, we as readers should be thankful.

Score: 5 out of 5


Overall


If you want to get really nit-picky, you could ding the overall score of this issue for the "bachelor" professor inconsistency, but that's one tiny thing in what is a strong issue. The score for this one is slightly lower than the previous issue, if only because there's nothing that packs the punch of "I'm going to bring Giles back to life", but don't take that to mean the series is moving in the wrong direction. If it can give us issues like this one month after month, it'll be at the top of every comic reader's pile on Wednesdays.


Score: 4 out of 5

Charmed Comic Review: Issue #14 - Cupid's Harrow

PLOT SUMMARY

Coop attends a funeral, where he has to use his cupid powers to enlist a deceased child as a new cupid. He has mixed feelings about performing this task, in part because he has a family now and because he never knew his family due to the nature of being a cupid. Phoebe decides to investigate his family history at The Bay Mirror, and gets a premonition off a newspaper article about a Senator's daughter getting married to someone with the last name Coopersmith. Phoebe tries to look up more information on the family on the computer, but it's unplugged -- by the spirit of Cole.

Phoebe manipulates things so the rehearsal dinner gets moved to Halliwell's where Cole tries to keep Coop out. He manages to get in, and comforts the groom to be (technically a distant relative), using his cupid ring in the process. The next day, Phoebe gets a premonition of the wedding, at which a huge fight broke out. Piper, Paige, Phoebe and Coop crash the wedding, and Cole keeps Coop from entering the church. The sisters split up and try to each help one part of the family.

Coop looks for another way in, but Kama, his fellow cupid, tells him not to. She explains that his powers created this problem to start with, because they have a strange effect on family. At the same time, the bride emerges, and Coop talks to her, and uses his powers to set things right again. The wedding is saved and everyone (presumably) lives happily ever after. Coop's familial curiosity is satisfied, and he's happy just having Phoebe and PJ. They all play in the park as Cole looks on. An agitated Patty arrives and tells Cole -- who insists he was just trying to protect Phoebe with his interference on Coop -- that he needs to stop focusing on Phoebe and get back to the task of finding Prue.

REVIEW

Covers

Once again, we've got two covers, the David Seidman art cover and the photo cover. I remember when I first saw the Seidman cover, I was skeptical of it, because I wasn't sure how it would tie into the story. From what we'd seen of Cole since his full-time departure from the series, he wasn't a villain anymore, but that's how he looked on the cover. Well, it turned out that was a misdirect, and a pretty good one given how the story was paced out. And, honestly, it almost looks photo-realistic, that's how good it is. I'm not a huge fan of the photo cover, but I'm not going to downgrade the score because of it, especially since most fans get the art cover anyway.

Score: 5 out of 5

Story

Ringer "If You Ever Want a French Lesson..." Reaction

Important business first: we've got official word from the writers of "Ringer" as to what to call Bridget-as-Siobhan

@RingerWriters
RingerWriters .@adamreisinger - @RingerWriters do you have a separate on-set name for the "Bridget-as-Siobhan" role? - Yes - Shivette! But there's also..
Sep 28 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

The follow-up tweet added the moniker "Brivan", who I'm guess is a character aspect we haven't met yet, but we got to spend more time with Shivette and Siobhan in this episode, which I think was the strongest for the show yet.

After the second episode of "Ringer", I was worried that the show would rely on layering mystery on top of mystery to drive things forward, rather than just naturally building on the inherent conflict between these characters. "If You Ever Want a French Lesson..." scaled back the "everyone plotting against everyone" aspect, narrowing things down to the Shivette-Andrew relationship. Shivette becomes suspicious that Andrew is the one trying to kill Siobhan, leading her down the rabbit hole that is the cell phone of the hired killer, in addition to a meeting with a divorce lawyer where she discovers that Siobhan may have not been entirely honest with Bridget about the status of her marriage before disappearing.

As it turned out, the Andrew thing was a misdirect, both for the audience and for Shivette, but it wasn't without purpose. Because the characters were forced to deal with their mistrust of each other directly, their relationship has come out stronger than it was before -- though obviously its still built on the massive lie that drives the series.

It's that lie that's leading Agent Machado to start to figure things out. He's noticed some drastic changes in Shivette's life that don't fit Siobhan's routine, which has him more suspicious than he was before. He's also trying to get into Siobhan's phone records, which will eventually lead him to the calls she made to Malcolm, who's dealing with his own set of problems right now (mostly, getting the shit kicked out of him by the guy Bridget is supposed to testify against).

I wasn't a huge fan of the Gemma/Henry financial subplot, mostly because we've already established that they don't trust each other, and I'm not sure how that served any purpose other than to re-establish that. Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe it's laying the groundwork for something that's going to happen later, but it seemed like wasted time that could have been better spent with Shivette, Machado, the mystery man after Shivette and the cell phone or even Siobhan herself.

Speaking of Siobhan, she now knows she's pregnant -- and that might be the first time in recorded history that the expectant mother was the LAST to know -- which I'm sure is going to throw a monkey wrench in her plans. Plus, we can now safely say that the pregnancy phone call from the doctor was not a false positive, which should create problems for both sisters, in completely different ways.

Through two episodes, I thought "Ringer" might have been spinning too wide a web, but this episode started to unravel things a little quicker, which is probably good for both the creative direction of the show and the long-term survivability.

Being Erica "Doctor Who?" Reaction

Warning: this review of the Season 4 premiere of "Being Erica" contains spoilers. Specifically, it reveals the identity of Erica's first patient, whose hand we saw at the end of last season. If you have yet to watch "Doctor Who?" and do not want to know the identity of the patient, then do not click the read more link.

Castle "Heroes and Villains" Reaction

There are a lot of different ways to describe "Castle" to someone who's never seen the show, but I don't think "subtle" would ever be one of them. Still, I don't remember an episode of the show that was quite as obvious in both its cross-promotion and its underlying message as "Heroes and Villains", the episode that aired Monday night.

The basic story featured a so-called "real life" superhero committing a murder, and Castle and Beckett trying to track down the killer, who turned out to be an impostor hero after many twists and turns. It was typical "Castle" fare and enjoyable enough if you didn't mind that once again the killer was the first suspect brought in, but they didn't figure that out until the end (that happens a LOT on this show).

But what wasn't typical was the overwhelming way in which product placement and integration became part of the plot. For those who aren't aware, Marvel Comics (a Disney-owned company, just like ABC, which airs "Castle") is turning one of Richard Castle's in-universe novels into a graphic novel. As you can see from the picture above, when Castle and Beckett had to visit a comic store as part of their investigation, the graphic novel was prominently featured, in a scene that came off as an in-episode commercial. All that was missing was information on how to order the book from Marvel.com. On top of that, the vast majority of comic book characters referenced by the characters in the show were Marvel characters. Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Panther, Iron Man... the list went on and on. There was one reference to Bruce Wayne (a DC character) and one reference to "Sin City" (a Dark Horse book), but otherwise it was a 42-minute "Make mine Marvel!" promotion.

And yet somehow, that wasn't even the least subtle aspect of the episode. In the final scene, the writers of the show whipped out the metaphor sledgehammer and smashed the audience over the head with the parallels between Castle and Beckett and the cop and writer who were at the center of the superhero mystery. The mere existence of the parallels was bad enough, but the fact that the characters pointed them out in the show itself. It was practically an insult to a viewership that's been waiting for any kind of Castle/Beckett resolution for 3+ seasons now. And it's the kind of cheap chicanery I thought the writers of "Castle" were above.

Jersey Monday: Sean Taylor

Monday Night Football Matchup: Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys

Recently, I've been considering selling or giving away some of my jerseys. The vast majority of my collection is sitting in boxes in my basement right now, and even if I did eventually get a place with more closet space, so many of them are so outdated that I couldn't conceive of any time or place to wear them (sorry, but I'm not a hipster... I'm not going to walk around wearing a 1992 Vlade Divac Lakers jersey "ironically").

Still, there are a few jerseys I would never consider giving up, and this one is at the top of that list.

From the day the Redskins drafted Sean Taylor, I wanted one of his jerseys. I almost got one his rookie year, when he wore number 36, but I had a sense that jersey number assignment was temporary (though, as it turns out, I sprung for a #36 Taylor jersey earlier this year). The next year Taylor switched to #21, but somehow getting a Taylor jersey fell off my radar.

By 2007, I was back in the swing of buying jerseys, and started hitting eBay hard in hopes of finding a deal on an authentic Taylor jersey. I've recounted this story on the blog in the past, but basically I was really close to landing one in late October, but lost the auction. I didn't think about it again until a couple weeks later, when Taylor was tragically killed. I bought this jersey the next day. I've only worn it a couple times, but it'll always have a special place in my heart.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

Community "Biology 101" Reaction

There was a lot of buzz about "Community" openeing the season with a musical number, one that proclaimed the show would cut down on some of its trademark "out there"-ness this season. Both of those things worried me, since the uniqueness of "Community" is what made me fall in love with the show this summer, but after watching last night's season premiere, I have to agree with the show that everything's going to be just fine.

First, the musical being Jeff's daydream in response to Annie asking "What are we gonna do without Pierce in the study group this year?" was inspired AND managed to set the tone for the rest of the episode. And because all the proclamations of a "less weird" year came in a daydream -- one that won't come to pass, since Pierce IS back -- then we probably don't have too worry too much about the show going "mainstream." See Jim Rash (who's been added to the opening credits) may proclaim, "this is the kind of National Lampoonery that's coming to an end this year," but by the end of the 30 minutes, the viewer gets the sense that "Community" is going to be just as wacky as it always has been, which is a great thing.

I thought the A-story, with Jeff getting kicked out of biology class, then the study group, then becoming "the new Pierce", complete with pathetic look and casual racism, was phenomenal. It called back to Jeff's insecurity about that exact thing in a previous episode, and led to a great "2001"-referencing dream sequence that was as meta as anything "Community" has ever done. And we got two solid Winger speeches right in the premiere, which puts us well ahead of next year's pace.

I'll admit that the Abed storyline -- where he tried to find a new TV show to replace "Cougartown", which has been pushed to midseason -- was amusing, but the nit-picky part of me was bothered by it. I just don't see how there's any way Britta would be aware of TV shows that Abed didn't know about, even if they were British. Abed's shown an affinity for shows like "Farscape" in the past, and that was an Australian show, so I don't see him being unaware of "Inspector Spacetime", the "Doctor Who"-esque show that Britta eventually found for him. I did love the joke about British shows ending abruptly, because I've found it to be so true with shows I've watched (aside: there was one show a few years back that I started seeing ads for. It was running on BBC America, so I decided to catch the first episode. I liked it a lot, then found out that not only had it already run in England, but it had already been canceled, after something like 18 episodes. I never watched another episode. Stupid British TV).

The additions of Michael K. Williams and John Goodman to the cast both worked incredibly well in the first episode. I'm definitely interested to see how they integrate Goodman's vice dean with the rest of the cast going forward, since we really only saw him with Dean Pelton in this episode. Williams's Prof. Kane could be a great mentor for Jeff's growth, along with Rich (remember that story thread that got left untouched last season?). He's like the anti-Rich. Oh, and I can't forget Chang. He was as madcap as ever. As long as he's around, the show will never go too mainstream, which is great.

Now, for the top five lines of the night:

Sideshow Sue Storm Comiquette Review

Earlier this week, I received the exclusive edition of Sideshow's latest Women of Marvel Comiquette: Sue Storm (aka The Invisible Woman). The statue was announced more than a year ago, but finally shipped this month, and upon arrival I can say it's quite nice.

Availability on this comiquette is incredibly limited, as has been the case for most of the recent Marvel releases. The exclusive edition, with a print of the test art, is only 375 pieces, while the regular edition is limited to 600. That means there are less than 1,000 of these floating around, which probably explains why they're already sold out at Sideshow.

The statue is based on art by Jelena Djurdjevic, who has created a stunning image of Sue Storm, one that should be familiar to comic fans. Sue is portrayed in her classic Fantastic Four uniform, not the current white-and-black FF digs, which is a great choice, because it gives the statue a more timeless quality (I have a Rogue Sideshow statue in her "current" outfit, and I just never quite feel like it's really Rogue). The pose is dynamic and strong without being masculine, though I do think it worked better on the art than in the three-dimensional sculpt -- there are some angles, particularly from the direct side, that look a bit awkward.

The facial sculpt and paint job are both really well done, ranking among the best from the Marvel line so far. It would have been easy for them to skew too young with the character's look, but they avoided doing that.

The key challenge with any Sue Storm likeness is how to portray the invisibility trait in a static product. This is where this statue shines, using a clear resin on the feet, with the paint job on the legs gradually fading away. You can tell a little bit in that picture to the left that you can actually see through the resin, particularly when looking downward onto the base. Until invisibility becomes a reality, it's always going to be difficult to portray this aspect of Sue Storm's character, but Sideshow's really done a fantastic job here. The paint fade looks very natural, and upon closer inspection of my piece, I didn't see any stray paint marks that would ruin the illusion.

Overall this is a strong addition to the line, and looks great alongside any of the previously released Marvel comiquettes. Hit the jump for more pictures of the statue itself, the packaging, and the exclusive art print.

Glee "The Purple Piano Project" Reaction/Song Review

We're entering the third season of "Glee", and through two seasons I've learned that the show requires an incredibly high level of suspension of disbelief, particularly when it comes to its increasingly complex musical numbers. I've accepted that somehow every instrumental musician at McKinley High knows every song ever, and has his or her instruments at all times, should a glee club member decide to break out into song.

There has to be a point where a line is drawn, and for me that came when Blaine (Darren Criss) transferred from Dalton to McKinley, apparently three days into the school year, and was actually encouraged to do so by his boyfriend Kurt (Chris Colfer) with utter disregard for Blaine's academic future. Maybe this should have happened earlier, but for me, this was the moment where I said "OK, this show is putting the music above realism, narrative and everything else, and I should just accept that." If I can't accept that, I can't enjoy the show.

So I'm putting aside the expositiony opening scene that smacked of lazy writing, ignoring the fact that the Lima, Ohio area is apparently home to the most musically-talented teens outside of New York and not criticizing Kurt and Rachel's overly dramatic response to that fact. Instead I'll just focus on the enjoyable moments. And there were plenty of things to enjoy in this episode, narrative absurdities aside. Here are my top five:

5. Brittany, following the food fight: "There's pepperoni in my bra."
Santana: "Those are your nipples."
God, I missed Brittany.

4. Coach Beiste talking about cutting players from the football team. I thought she got more and more underutilized as the season went on last year, and this was a really good scene for her.

3. It's such a tiny, stupid thing to care about, but Will's Superman lunchbox (and Emma's matching Wonder Woman lunchbox) was awesome.

2. Sue Sylvester becoming a true villain again. I was wondering how they'd swing this following last year's softening at the funeral, and they actually did a decent job and made it fit in a natural narrative.

1. Everything about Quinn's new look. I could live without the attitude, but the look... yes, please!

Oh, and "Glee" still has music too. Less than last year, which is probably a good thing. In Season 1, there were episodes that would only have 2 songs. Then last year it bloated all the way up to an average of six songs an episode, which was too many. This one had five (not counting the "audition" by self-diagnosed Asperger's girl, and I'm not gonna get into how casually offensive that was), which is an improvement, but we could probably trim a little more.

Monday 10 ET Roundup: "Castle", "Hawaii Five-0", "The Playboy Club"

I have three shows on my DVR during the Monday 10:00 time slot -- for now -- and after I'm finished watching one of them live, I usually head straight to bed, which obviously doesn't really give me a chance to review them until Tuesdays. So, for the foreseeable future, if I do any reviewing of "Castle", "Hawaii Five-0" or "The Playboy Club", it'll probably come in a quick roundup format for that timeslot. As it is, I wanted to share some brief thoughts on last night's season premieres.

"Castle"
The show I chose to watch live last night (well, plausibly live... we'll get to that) was easily the best of the night. The resolution to last season's cliffhanger, at least from the Kate getting shot perspective, was predictable, but still handled with the right sense of drama. I thought the way things developed from there were very good, especially when it came to the Castle-Kate relationship. A lot of times when a show does a late-episode twist, it can be really gratuitous, but in the case of Kate's revelation about her memory of the shooting, it goes a long way toward explaining her actions during the rest of the episode.

With all the drama going on, the case of the week kind of got the short shrift, but for this week, I was fine with that. I don't see that continuing in future episodes, which should have more of a balance between weekly procedural and ongoing story.

"Hawaii Five-0"

How I Met Your Mother "The Best Man" and "The Naked Truth" Reaction

I had my thoughts all laid out, ready to criticize both of tonight's premiere episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", and then the show took one of its trademark twists, pulling me back in with one of its most interesting casting moves in years.

Before I get to that, let's address some of the problems I had with tonight's two episodes. Hell, let's go even further and condense all those "problems" down to "problem" singular. This show has gone from toying with its audience to outwardly mocking it. It was most noticeable in the first episode, "The Best Man", where the jokes leaned heavily on the Future Ted narration mislead that has become a staple of the show's writing. The "that's not how Marshall ruined the wedding" gag was tired the very first time Future Ted paused the story, and only got worse with each subsequent return. The twist at the end relied on the TV staple of flashing back to an earlier scene from a different angle, which is just lame. And the strained way in which Ted, Barney and Lily avoided mentioning Barney's bride by name was probably really funny in the writers' room, but was painful as a viewer.

The second episode was slightly less gimmicky -- aside from the repeating gag with things Marshall's boss said -- but I wouldn't say it was great either. Ted being a douche with the magazine, then struggling to pick between the two girls, was just annoying. The Lenny Kravitz joke was obvious. And there was no suspense to Marshall's storyline for anyone who knew that Martin Short was signed on for a recurring role.

Jersey Monday: Kurt Warner

Monday Night Football Matchup: St. Louis Rams at New York Giants


Based on my jersey collection, I could have gone a few different directions with tonight's MNF game, but only one jersey in my collection covers both these teams at once: Kurt Warner.

The retired quarterback is obviously best known for his years with the Rams (where he won a Super Bowl) and the Cardinals (where he somehow got that decrepit franchise to a Super Bowl), but in between he spent one mediocre year keeping the QB seat warm for Eli Manning with the Giants. People tend to remember Warner's year with New York as a disaster, in part because he had serious fumbling problems, but the reality is the Giants went 5-4 with him as the starter, compared to just 1-6 with Manning.

As for this jersey, well, it's a Nike replica that's held up relatively well throughout the years -- though I'm pretty sure I stopped wearing it after Warner left St. Louis, so it only really got about three years of use. Unlike many of my jerseys, I can actually remember exactly when and where I bought this jersey, only because I happened to buy this -- my 2nd Rams jersey -- at the same time I bought my first Bears jersey. At the time, that completed the NFL for me, though the Texans eventually came along and messed that up.

Interestingly, this is one of only a couple Nike jerseys that I have, but that'll also probably change soon, since Nike's getting the NFL contract back next season. I don't buy jerseys with the frequency I once did, but I can't rule out adding some to the collection.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

On Netflix, Qwikster and Shifting Demand

A couple months ago, Netflix announced a new pricing structure, essentially separating the billing for streaming and DVD services, rather than treating the streaming option as a throw-in with a DVD subscription. Given the way the market was moving, it made some sense, but public reaction would have led you to believe that Netflix was now in the business of slaughtering kittens and selling their blood -- and overcharging for the blood at that.

Well, the company has finally responded, sending out what has to be the longest, most rambling P.R. mea culpa/product announcement I've ever seen:

That's not the whole thing. It keeps going on and on, and I'm sure most people were on the Internet within minutes registering their disgust throughout the world. Me? Well... honestly, I'm kind of fine with this.

Review: Buffy Season 9, #1 - Freefall, Part 1

PLOT SUMMARY

Set, a few months after the events of the "Twilight" arc, "Buffy S9 #1" picks up where S8 #40 left off, Buffy living in San Francisco, working as a waitress, dealing with a world without magic. The issue starts with Buffy waking up confused, with a hangover, after a huge party at her new apartment the night before. Buffy shares her new place with a girl (Anaheed) and a guy (Tumbler) who don't know about her being The Slayer. Xander and Dawn show up for the party, then Willow shows up with her new girlfriend (and a new haircut).

Eventually, Riley, Spike and Andrew all show up too, and much craziness happens at the party, including Buffy casually hitting on a married Riley, a very hint-y scene with Xander in Buffy's bedroom, a pool game of chicken with Andrew on Buffy's shoulders and a visit from the police. The next morning, Buffy briefly thinks she may have slept with Willow (but apparently, to the disappointment of thousands of shippers, she didn't), goes in to work where she's told she has the day off, and deals with the consequences of her partying actions.

While all this is going on, there are three major supernatural-y things happening. First the SFPD comes across a dead body that has no obvious cause of death, the third such girl found that way this week. A group of demons tries, unsuccessfully, to contain some kind of previously unseen demon warrior, who has to "honor the task. Kill all." And Simone returns to San Francisco in a VW van loaded with weapons.

The night after the party, Buffy goes out patrolling, with Willow joining her, and they continue to argue about the fallout from the discussion of the seed. Spike joins them and quips. Then a demon shows up and tells Buffy that it's time to pay... her student loan!

REVIEW

Story

The immediate question is how to review this. Should I be looking at this as a continuation of the ongoing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" story, a reintroduction to it, or something that stands on its own merit. To be fair, I think it has moments where it succeeds and fails in all three categories, and in that way, it's a lot like many of the season premiere episodes from the TV series. If you're looking for an epilogue to the previous season, it's not entirely there, but the events aren't ignored either.

As I read this issue, I couldn't help but feel like there was a lot going on, and yet nothing going on at the same time. After the "everything has massive consequences" feel of the last few arcs of Season 8, everything that was going on seemed kind of low scale here. There were definitely some heavy moments, and you can tell things still aren't right between Willow and Buffy, but for the most part, the big party felt out of place, particularly with Buffy getting so wasted. Yes, there was a callout to "Beer Bad", but I just don't see Buffy as the kind of girl who'd handle her problems -- even her massive world-changing problems -- by drowning them in alcohol. Still, she genuinely seemed remorseful the next morning, which could set her on the path to seeing that her actions haven't always been right.

That said, I love the idea of Buffy having roommates who aren't "in the know." It takes things back to a Season 2 reality, where she has to be sneaky, and pretend to be normal, which is really what she's wanted all along (the normal part, not the sneaky part). Oh, and while the "student loan" twist at the end felt a little Season 6-y (with the money problems and all), I have to admit, I laughed my ass off at that page, and Buffy's NSFW reaction.

This "Kill all" demon-y thing intrigues me, and I can't help but wonder if he's connected to the dead girl -- and I also can't help but wonder if the dead girl is a slayer. I don't want to spend too much time speculating, though, after the "who is Twilight" question started to dominate Season 8 (before getting spoiled... THANKS A LOT, SOLICITATION COVERS!).

This issue wasn't quite a plunge into the deep waters of Season 9, but more of a dip into the shallow end, which I think is fine for now. We'll have to see how things pick up in the next few issues.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

2011 Desktop Girl of the Week Champion: Summer Glau

Well, that was just... not close. It was not close to a level that defies non-closeness. With a record number of votes cast in the four-tournament history of the DGOW tournament, Summer Glau captured an incredible 95.6% of the vote. It obviously helped that multiple Summer-focused websites picked up on the poll and publicized links, but even without those, Emma Stone would have never stood a chance.

So, Summer adds her name to this list:

ALL-TIME ADAMREISINGER.com DGOW CHAMPIONS

2005: Monica Bellucci
2008: Christina Aguilera
2010: Scarlett Johansson
2011: Summer Glau

That'd make a sweet Final Four for a tournament of champions, wouldn't it?

And, as promised, here's Summer's victory prize (well, technically a victory prize for those that supported Summer). Enjoy!

Ringer "Pilot" Reaction

Heading into tonight's premiere of "Ringer", I was worried that the abundance of promotion done for the show had given away too much of what happened not only in the pilot but in Season 1 as a whole. Fans who'd been reading the preview material and interviews with the cast already knew that Bridget (the "messed up" of the two twins played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) had issues with the law, that she would replace her sister Siobhan (pronounced "Shavonne") after what appeared to be the latter's untimely demise on a sisterly boat trip, that Bridget would pretend to be Siobhan and learn that Siobhan was cheating on her husband and that it would turn out Siobhan was alive.

Well, as it turns out, the producers of "Ringer" still had a couple surprises left in store for us, in tonight's impressive premiere. The pre-"death" portion of the episode at the beginning was a little rough, only if because the tricks used to get the two sisters on screen at the same time were a little painful. But once the show moved beyond that and got into the meat of its conceit going forward, it really started to shine.

Things got a little complicated at times, so let's try to break this down by character:

• Bridget is on the run from the FBI, having fled from testifying at a murder trial. She's now officially a fugitive, because charges against her were dropped on the condition she testified. She's posing as her estranged twin sister Siobhan, who never told anyone in her life about Bridget's existence. 
• The FBI officer who had been protecting Bridget in Wyoming (played by the incredible Nestor Carbonell) is now in New York. He met with Bridget-as-Siobhan (who, for simplicity, I'll be calling "Bribhan" until the blogosphere comes up with something better), who lied to him, and he's suspicious of her, but doesn't appear to suspect the dual identity... yet.
• Siobhan's husband, Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd), immediately picks up on something being different with Bribhan, first just physically, then in personality. He also appears to be up to something, based on a phone call scene we only saw briefly. 
• Siobhan was having an affair with Henry (Kristoffer Polaha) and -- TWIST -- she's supposed to be four weeks pregnant. Siobhan didn't know this for sure before she disappeared (though she obviously suspected it, since she ordered blood tests), and Bribhan obviously doesn't know who the father is.
• Gemma (Tara Summers), Siobhan's best friend, suspects that Henry is having an affair, and by the end of the episode, she claims to have figured out with who. 
• Oh, and Siobhan. She faked her death, is now looking STUNNING in Paris, and appears to have put out a hit on... herself? Sort of. Maybe?

Jersey Monday: Tim Brown

I didn't think it would work out this way, but I went through the schedule, and I can spotlight a jersey of one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football -- a jersey that hasn't been used for "Jersey Monday" before -- for each week of the 2011 NFL season. So with that in mind, I'm just getting under the wire for Week 1 with this Tim Brown Oakland Raiders jersey.

If this jersey looks a little funky at the bottom, there's a reason for that. It's actually reversible. I can't remember exactly when Reebok was doing this -- I think it was the late '90s -- but these were officially licensed jerseys that featured the team color on one side and the white jersey on the other. You flipped it inside out and voilà! Two jerseys!

Honestly, the gimmick blew. The white jersey side never really looked white, since the color side bled through the mesh. Because it was reversible, it was twice as thick, but you still had to wear a shirt under it, because the screen-printed numbers felt really uncomfortable directly against the skin, which meant if you were wearing it in the summer, you got super hot. Basically, I wish I'd saved my money (yes, they were more expensive than regular replicas too) and just bought a black Raiders Tim Brown jersey.

Brown has sort of been forgotten in the receiver explosion that's happened in the last few years, which is kind of disappointing considering just how good he was. First of all, he was a Heisman winner who didn't suck in the NFL, so he deserves major credit for that alone. He ranks near the top of every major NFL receiving list, was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and a member of the NFL's All-'90s team. I guess he just had the misfortune of both never winning a Super Bowl and being overshadowed in the Bay Area for the entirety of his career by Jerry Rice (including the time when they were Raiders teammates).

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile. For the remainder of the NFL season, Jersey Monday will feature one of the teams playing on Monday Night Football.

Three Memories From Sept. 11, 2001

I think pretty much every website in the country is looking back on what happened 10 years ago today, and far be it from me to break the trend. I honestly tried to write a straight-forward narrative of my thoughts, reactions and feelings about that day, but it never quite came out right. So let me just share three anecdotes of my Sept. 11, 2001:

- Most of the day is a blur for me. I'd love to sit here and tell you it's all crystallized in my mind, but beyond about 1pm, everything just sort of runs together in a jumble of fear, confusion and adrenaline. What isn't blurry is how the day started, because, honestly, it started like almost any other day of mine in college. I woke up. Turned on "SportsCenter" -- lead story: Michael Jordan getting ready to announce his comeback -- sat down at my computer and hopped on AIM (remember when THAT was the primary method of instant communication? When was the last time you used AOL Instant Messenger, instead of Facebook or Twitter? Be honest. That thing is more obsolete than Friendster).

My buddy Phil IMs me: "are you watching the news?"
My response: "Yeah, Jordan's coming back."
Phil: "No, you dumbass, the real news."
I flip to ABC and see the image of fire coming out of the North Tower.
Me: "Holy crap, what happened."
Phil: "A plane crashed into the building."

At this point, I picked up the phone and called him, and we continued to talk as the news showed the images. We went back and forth, just like they did on the news: was it an accident, was it an attack, big plane, small plane? Just lots of questions. Then the second plane hit. We watched it live. Millions of people watched it live. Most of the day might be a blur. THAT image, I'll never forget.

- The weird thing is the rest of my morning tried to progress as normally as possible. I had a 9:30 a.m. economics class, and when I got there, everyone was buzzing about what had just happened. Then the professor walked in and everyone got real quiet, expecting him to have some profound words, or start some kind of discussion or basically for anything to happen like it would if we were all in some kind of "very special" episode of a TV show. Instead, he started talking about -- economics. This was a dull class to begin with (but required for my minor in business administration), but the juxtaposition of his normally scheduled lesson with the backdrop of 9/11 was insane. People started looking around and murmuring "is he really just going to teach the lesson?" After a few minutes, people started walking out. Me? I stayed the whole time, scribbling football plays in my notebook while he rambled on about supply and demand.

Getting Ready for the 2011-12 TV Season

It kind of creeped up on me this year, but this coming week marks the start of the 2011-12 TV season. The only network that's starting things up this week is The CW, but I've got a couple shows on my schedule from them, so I'll be getting back into the swing of TV reviews soon (I took the summer off, sorry "Futurama").

Before we get to this year, let's take a look at the list of shows from last year that I was watching that didn't survive for another season:

• The Event
• The Cape
• V
• No Ordinary Family
• Hellcats
• Better With You
• Smallville
• Running Wilde
• Shit My Dad Says

If you're keeping track -- and I don't know why you would be -- that's nine shows axed this past season, 10 the season before that and seven the year before that. However, unlike last year, when six of the 10 ended shows were multi-season affairs, this year's list of cancellations is primarily made up of shows that only lasted a single season. Only "V" and "Smallville" were carryovers from previous seasons, and "Smallville" had announced in advance that last year was its final season. What does this mean? Well, basically I sucked at picking new shows to watch last year, and the networks were kind, for the most part, to my carryover shows. Speaking of those, here's the list of shows I watched in 2010-11 that are back for another season:

Monday
8 - How I Met Your Mother (returns Sept. 19)
8 - Gossip Girl (returns Sept. 26)
10 - Hawai'i Five-0 (returns Sept. 19)
10 - Castle (returns Sept. 19)

Tuesday
8 - Glee (returns Sept. 20)

Wednesday
9 - Modern Family (returns Sept. 21)

Thursday
8 - The Vampire Diaries (returns Sept. 15)
8 - The Big Bang Theory (returns Sept. 22)
9 - Bones (returns Nov. 3)

Friday
8 - Chuck (returns Oct. 21)
9 - Fringe (returns Sept. 23)

Sunday
9 - Desperate Housewives (returns Sept. 25)

Charmed Comic Review: Issue #13 - Piper's Place

(For those familiar with my Charmed comic reviews, you might notice a new format this time around. It's designed to focus more on the "reviewing" part and less on just re-hashing the contents of the issue.)


PLOT SUMMARY

Piper is getting close to opening her restaurant, but there's still plenty of work to be done, even just a day before it opens. Between her work with the restaurant and her duties as a Charmed One, she's barely had any time to spend with her family. Wyatt, her eldest son, thinks he has a solution when he goes to the Book of Shadows and finds a multiply spell, which he used to conjure up multiple fake Pipers (I'm calling them Fipers) . The next morning, Piper is obviously concerned by the situation, and her sons denials, but decides to take advantage of it. Real Piper gets coffee with Phoebe, but when she goes off to the bathroom, another Fiper shows up and heads off with Phoebe. Real Piper goes to her restaurant, where she encounters two Fipers instead of one, thinking no one stayed home with the kids. Real Piper calls Phoebe, and they quickly figure out that there are way more Fipers than they had previously thought. We see what some of them are up to -- including a trio disciplining Wyatt and one seducing Leo -- while Real Piper begins to feel adverse effects from the spell. Paige rounds all the ones at the restaurant up into Piper's SUV, Leo fends off the seductive Fiper and everyone meets up at the manor, where Real Piper apologizes to Wyatt for not being around, then gets him to undo the spell. The restaurant opens successfully that night, with a completed painted sign (a running joke through the issue) showing off the name -- Halliwell's.

REVIEW

Covers

There are two covers for this issue, the David Seidman art cover and a Piper-centric photo cover. The Seidman cover, showing Piper holding one of her children and balancing seemingly her entire life in the other hand, does a great job of setting up the core conflict of the issue in one image, while also not giving away the multiple Piper twist. The only thing that bugs me about it is from a distance, the piece of laundry that's draped over Piper's head looks like poorly-matted hair. It's just weird, but not a dealbreaker. The photo cover is stunning, as always, and I wish someone was getting specific design credit for these, since they're much more than just cropping a photo and slapping a logo over it, like the old "Buffy" Dark Horse photo covers.

Score: 4 out of 5

Story

DGOW Fave 5 - Summer Glau Roles

Before I get to the list of my favorite Summer Glau roles, I just want to clear up a misconception. There have been a few people who've e-mailed me saying it seems like I don't LIKE Summer Glau, based on what they've seen from this tournament so far. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm a HUGE fan of Summer Glau. What I'm not a fan of is inevitability, and I quickly realized when I built the field of 32 that this was going to be a six-week long march toward Summer's inevitable victory. I've got no problem with Summer winning -- in fact, I personally voted for her in each round except the Final Four -- but I tried to spice things up along the way. Realistically, Summer was never in any danger of losing in any round, and she's not in danger of losing this week either. Still, voting will be open through Saturday, so make sure to spread the word if you haven't already (oh, and yes, technically, you can still vote for Emma Stone, but unless you and every single one of your Facebook friends and Twitter followers do so, it's probably not going to make much of a difference).

OK, now on to the Fave 5, with a couple quick caveats. First, I bailed on "The 4400" before Summer even joined the cast, which was probably my mistake. I totally skipped "The Unit", and I wasn't going to jump in for Summer's brief arc (sorry!), "Alphas" is sitting on my DVR to catch up with from the beginning, so I haven't seen her episode yet, and then there's "The Cape", which comes in at the fictional #6 spot in this Top 5. I just think the writing on that show really messed up a character that Summer tried to do her best with.

5. "Chuck"

I know she was only on the show for one episode, and had a minor, disposable role at that, but she was obviously my favorite of the Gretas last season (yes, moreso than both Towson alum Stacy Keibler and Old Spice guy Isaiah Mustafa). Plus, how can you not love a reunion with "Firefly" co-star Adam Baldwin. The only thing better might be a cameo on "Castle" ... wait, can we make that happen? Please?

4. "Angel"

Everything starts somewhere, and for Summer Glau, it started with this guest appearance as the mystical prima ballerina on a Season Three episode of "Angel". Joss Whedon put Glau's dancing on display, and had a whole scene that focused on her eyes, which might be the best thing ever.

3. "Dollhouse"

Bennett Halverson was introduced in the "DC Dollhouse" set of episodes, and what I loved about them is that the key characters at the DC Dollhouse were similar (though gender swapped) to their LA counterparts, but taken to an extreme. Glau's Halverson was very much like Topher, but immoral rather than amoral, and also hotter. Much, much hotter.

DGOW Fave 5 - Emma Stone Roles

I put off this post (and it's corresponding post for the opponent -- don't worry Summer Glau fans) from last week since the voting in the DGOW Final goes through this entire week, but it might be too little too late for Emma Stone. Or maybe, too little too early, since her biggest movie, "The Amazing Spider-Man", isn't set to hit theaters until next summer. Still, Stone has been in plenty to this point in her career, enough that I can put together a Fave 5 of her roles to this point.*

*Note: I have yet to see "Crazy Stupid Love" or "The Help", which is why neither of them is on this list. I hear she's great in both of them, but neither is the kind of movie that screams "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS IN THE THEATER" to me.

5. "Drive"

This is the OTHER short-lived Nathan Fillion series that FOX canceled before it had a chance to find an audience (and, unlike "Firefly", it doesn't have a cult following, in part because only six episodes got made, which isn't enough to produce an interestingly re-watchable narrative after the fact). Stone played Violet, the daughter/teammate of one of the competitors -- played by Dylan Baker, who interestingly enough was in the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" trilogy as Curt Conners, who in "Spider-Man" lore is the alter ego of The Lizard, the primary villain in the upcoming "The Amazing Spider-Man." But I digress. Stone played one of the best characters on this show. It's worth tracking down if you can find the six episodes.

4. "The House Bunny"

I hate to admit this, but I like this cheesy Anna Faris movie more than I should. It's clichéd from start to finish, but somehow it just works, and Stone is a big part of that. She's probably a little too hot to be playing the nerdy outcast, but that's Hollywood for you.

3. "Superbad"

This is the movie that really launched Emma Stone's career -- and a billion annoying "McLovin" references over the last four years -- and while I love her in it, I'm not too sure how I feel about the movie anymore. Don't get me wrong, I like it. I just don't find it nearly as re-watchable as most people do. I think it's almost better in clips and quotes than as a full narrative.

Jersey Monday: Andre Johnson

College football's opening weekend is a true five-day affair, kicking off on Thursday night and culminating in a Labor Day showdown, which in recent years has almost always featured the University of Miami. That's the case again tonight, when the Hurricanes open their 2011 season -- one that will likely be marked from the fallout of the Nevin Shapiro allegations -- against the University of Maryland.

I actually have jerseys of both teams involved in tonight's game, a rare occurrence given the small size of my college football jersey collection, but I'm going with Miami and Andre Johnson for today's Jersey Monday spotlight. I wouldn't really call myself a Miami fan, but I was fascinated by their teams in the late '80s and early '90s when I was growing up, and I had a brief obsession with the mini-dynasty they put together in the early '00s -- the team that won 34 consecutive games and was robbed of a 35th by the latest flag in recorded history (seriously, Terry Porter actually just threw the flag two days ago). Johnson was part of that team, earning MVP honors in the 2002 Rose Bowl that clinched the national title for the 'Canes.

Weirdly, despite coming from such a high profile program and putting up consistently great numbers as a pro, Johnson has tended to fly under the radar during his NFL career. He's not as flamboyant or outspoken as past Miami players, nor is he as attention-grabbing as other NFL wide receivers. He's just really, really good, which is kind of what that 2000-2002 era Miami team was all about. It doesn't seem like that long ago in terms of time, but considering where Miami is now (under investigation and regularly mediocre), it might as well have happened in another century.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

DGOW Championship Match-Up: Emma Stone vs Summer Glau

AdamReisinger.com has reached the final match-up in the 2011 Desktop Girl of the Week Tournament. The championship match pits Emma Stone against Summer Glau.

	Emma Stone	Summer Glau
Date Selected	Dec. 8, 2010	Dec. 29, 2010
DOB	Nov. 6, 1988	July 24, 1981
Birthplace	Scottsdale, Arizona	San Antonio, Texas
Known for	"Zombieland", "Easy A"	"Firefly", "Serenity"
6 Degrees of Joss	Appeared on "Drive" with Nathan Fillion (Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible)	Appeared on "Angel", "Dollhouse", "Firefly" and "Serenity"
Road to the Championship	Def. Erika Christensen Def. Autumn Reeser Def. Emily Blunt Def. Rachel McAdams	Def. Izabella Miko Def. Laura Vandervoort Def. Katrina Bowden Def. Sarah Michelle Gellar

Analysis: It all comes down to this: Emma Stone vs. Summer Glau. Stone, the 23-year-old redhead, has become a fan favorite with her sassy, no-holds barred roles in "Zombieland" and "Easy A", but will likely take a different approach as the blonde Gwen Stacy in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man". Meanwhile, Glau has become a geek goddess, largely on the strength of her role as River Tam on the short-lived series "Firefly." The fanbases for the two women probably has significant overlap, so it'll come down to which one the fans truly love more.

Prediction: I've said this pretty much every round, but it holds true here: this is an Internet vote, so Summer Glau will probably win easily.