I picked up Halo 3 today at lunch and they carded me. I'm pretty glad that stores are enforcing video game ratings. If a young kid buys the game and his parent's get pissed at the violence then it should be the store or the parent's fault. Not the game's.
This makes me recall an older rant/question I had -- why do toy stores sell toys from R rated movies? It never made much sense to me. If it's a comic or specialty shop or something like this, I can understand. But when T-1000 is hanging on a shelf next to Power Rangers or even R2-D2 it seems to me to cheapen the rating system. I'm tired so the reasoning on this one may not be so sound.
New TV Shows started over the weekend. I caught a couple and here's my thoughts:
The Simpsons: The intro to this episode continued where the movie left off and that was very pleasing. But that was really the end of the good for season 19(?)'s premiere. Stephen Colbert was completely pointless and throw-away. I'll be looking forward to the Alan Moore episode but I don't have any hopes for this show anymore.
Family Guy: The Star Wars episode. This was actually pretty good. I am a pretty big Star Wars / A New Hope fan tho, so I may be biased. Especially nice to see Family Guy breaking from their "do you remember when this happened?" jokes which are followed by "wacky", "crazy" and "original" ideas. Family Guy jokes have the same problem as Adult Swim programs: They rely too much on random craziness and not enough on things that are actually funny. Random craziness was good when Adult Swim first started. I think it's time for a change in their concepts.
Chuck: I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of this. I knew the plot coming into it and I was still confused by some of the things they were showing me. Also, setting a show in Best Buy is pretty dumb too.
The Big Bang Theory: A laugh track and Darlene's boyfriend from Rosanne. I actually watched all of this I think, but I'm not really sure why. The two geeks are actually geeks and not the TV version of geeks (TV geeks read comics or like computers or like general science and math, these geeks get really into physics and things). The jokes weren't very funny, but I'll give it a second chance at least.
Kid Nation: Kids are idiots. Especially these kids. There are one or two kids on here that have the traits of kids that I actually like: funny/insane comments that only make sense in a kid's mind. But the majority of these kids are just know it all punks. And they can't make Mac & Chee worth a damn. The gold star buisness is stupid. Running stores and having "servants" is stupid. At least the kids were smart and chose 7 more toilets instead of a TV. I can't wait til the episode where they all drink bleach.
Heroes: What should have started with a bang (and also ended with a bang last season)started with me wanting to change the channel constantly. There were "limited" commercials but I don't know what they were limiting. There were still a ton of commercials. This episode of Heroes failed because it followed lame characters. Matt Parkman is boring as hell. His character is lame, his job is lame and he doesn't use his powers for anything then being lame. I like the girl he is keeping, but mostly only her power and not so much her sassyness. They also follow Nathan Petrelli who now has a beard to show that he is a drunk and is sad. He sucks. Claire the Cheerleader sucks. Her family is boring. The flying boy from her school is annoying. What used to be my favorite parts (Hiro and Ando)were also killed. Hiro is in Ancient Japan and his hero is a completely lame character that was probably supposed to be in A Knight's Tale. And in the current timeline, Ando is stuck with Hiro's dad who has somehow vanished after falling off a building with some sort of ninja assassin. Everyone on the show talks vague about every thing on the show. How do people actually live in this world? Kristen Bell's character had better be more then just her pretty face.
I Tivo'd some other things that I have yet to check out (Journeyman, Reaper, Bionic Woman) but I don't have very high hopes. I'm really looking forward to 30 Rock (w/ Seinfeld!) and the Office (might be boring!)but that's probably it until LOST starts back. Horrible shows will give me a chance to catch up on Battlestar Galactica and to rewatch Oz.
Supposedly the new Wes Anderson short (prequel-ish to the Darjeeling Limited)will be on iTunes tomorrow (actually today, but w/ev). This is exciting because I doubt that Greenville will be one of the limited cities to get the film.