Thursday, July 26, 2018

Ensemble Casts


One thing that we've seen more of on television in my lifetime is the ensemble cast, which I really like. That's not to say that shows with specific stars are bad, but you get more story possibilities with a large group. I think the best example of this is Hill Street Blues, and it's not necessarily because of the writing or acting, both of which are outstanding. No, it's because of the various types of characters.

Unlike NYPD Blue or Dragnet, which focused on the detectives, or Adam 12, which focused on the patrolmen, this show looked at everyone in the precinct from the Captain on down. This is something that most shows don't bother with. Just look at any Star Trek show and you'll see the focus on the senior staff, which is why "The Lower Decks" is always brought up as a great change of pace.

Seeing the same events from all sides, and being given completely identifiable, and flawed, characters from all walks of life was just great. I know that having regular casts of this size is cost prohibitive, but I'd really like to see more of this kind of thing. I understand wanting to focus on the "movers and shakers", but showing how it affects the people lower down, or even how the decisions of those lower down affect those above, adds a really nice dynamic to the storytelling.

What do you think? What are some of your favorite ensemble shows?

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Thursday, July 19, 2018

Wonder Woman Is Not Bulletproof


I'm not sure why, but I've been hearing a good amount of questions regarding Wonder Woman and whether she is bulletproof or not. The reasoning goes that she can take a punch almost as well as Superman, so her skin should be tough enough. Well, it's not quite that simple.

Diana is tough, no doubt about it. However, the Goddesses granted her enough resilience to handle her powers, but they didn't make her invulnerable. Think of it this way, a normal human can take a blunt impact, like a punch or even just running into a piece of furniture, and get away with, maybe, a bruise. An arrow, on the other hand, would pierce the skin and cause serious injury.

It's the same way with Wonder Woman. Blunt impacts, or just impacts that can be spread out over an area, will hurt but aren't deadly. Bullets, or anything with a large impact over a small area, will hurt or even kill her. That's why she has to use her super-speed and indestructible bracelets to deflect bullets.

I should point out that my information comes from the Post-Crisis Era of DC, after the George Perez revamp. If you're talking about Post-Flashpoint, then all bets are off as I have no experience with that version of Diana.

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Thursday, July 12, 2018

Cartoon Interlude

Things have been on the busy side around here lately, so here's a classic Disney cartoon to tide you over.



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Thursday, July 5, 2018

Reversing The Snap


I'm going to assume that everyone reading this has either already seen Avengers: Infinity War, or has heard what the ending it. If you haven't, please skip this post until later.

Still with me? Good.

I've been hearing a lot of talk on the social medias about the "Snap Heard 'Round The Universe" and how those killed in the movie before that "obviously can't be brought back". I'm sorry, but that's not obvious at all. Let's get a run down on the Infinity Stones, shall we?

Space Stone - Admittedly, being able to have instant access to any point in the universe isn't going to help us here.

Mind Stone - As with the Space Stone, this one is probably not going to help in this situation.

Soul Stone - Most people agree that Gamora's soul got sucked into the Soul Stone, so getting her back would be easy. It might be possible that everyone from The Snap is also in there, but that's not the problem we're addressing here.

Power Stone - Now we're getting somewhere. You see, the Power Stone has the ability to supercharge the other stones, making them more effective.

Time Stone - This one allows the user complete control over time, which means that someone could go backwards in time and change events to prevent

Reality Stone - Let's ruminate on the name here. Reality Stone. What's it's power? It can RESHAPE REALITY! The Reality Stone, backed by the Power Stone, can do ANYTHING, even bringing people back from the dead. Or, as in the comics, hit a universe sized RESET BUTTON!

So don't tell me that it's "obvious" that those not killed by the snap can't come back. The wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet can, literally, to ANYTHING. Once Adam Warlock get's his hands on it, everyone's coming back. They may not be the same as they were (changing actors, etc), but they will be back. There's no doubt about it in my mind, so ...


For more on the Infinity Gems and the original Infinity Gauntlet mini-series, check out the latest episode of The Quantum Cast.

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