Ask people for a list of their favorite sit-coms of all time and you’re likely to get responses like Seinfeld, The Andy Griffith Show, Cheers or the Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Rarely in that list will you get the response Happy Days, which was a huge hit for a long period of time in the late 70s and early 80s.

Of course, it’s easy to understand why people can look down their nose at Happy Days.  It is the show, after all, that gave us the phrase “jump the shark” referring to that exact moment in a TV show’s history when the slow, inevitable decline began.   I think adding that phrase to the pop culture vocabulary has worked against the show and the general public’s memories of it over the years.

A recent article in the Onion A.V. Club that asserts that Happy Days sold its soul to be a hit didn’t exactly help either.

And while the article has some interesting points about how Happy Days evolved from a single camera series to a multi-camera formula driven situation comedy, I feel that I should come out and make the radical statement that while I like the first two season of Happy Days, most of the time when I stumble across the show in syndicated repeats, I feel like these are the two seasons I have to plow through in order to get to “the good stuff.”

And by “the good stuff,” I mean the third and fourth seasons when the show’s emphasis moved away from a nostalgic piece of Americana to putting one Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzereilli front and center of  the show.   These are the only two season of the show I own on DVD and it’s likely those will be the only two I will ever own though that’s less about my opinion on later seasons’ quality and more based on the belief that future seasons won’t see the light of day on DVD due to the musical rights.

It’s because of this that when the Hallmark Channel began running the entire series through in large blocks, I sought out and recorded selected episodes not included in the two seasons I have on DVD.

Read the full article on The Randomizer. 

Huge parts of me were hoping that Star Trek into Darkness would be to the Trek franchise what The Dark Knight was to the revitalized Batman franchise.

Lofty expectations like that are probably unfair.  But I’ll also say that Christopher Nolan didn’t make us wait four years for the next installment either.

As a summer action movie, Star Trek into Darkness works on just about every level.   The film begins with Kirk blatantly violating the Prime Directive to save Spock and a planet full of aliens from an erupting volcano.   The decision creates conflicts with Starfleet for Kirk and tensions in Kirk’s friendship with Spock.

But there’s little time for these matters when a terrorist by the name of John Harrison begins targeting Starfleet installations.   Kirk is enlisted to pursue Harrison and bring him to justice.

I won’t say a lot more about the film’s plot at this point to avoid ruining any of the movie’s surprises for anyone.   Star Trek into Darkness examines the theme of family — and let’s just say that as a family, the crew of the Enterprise is a highly dysfunctional one.   But they all come together over the course of the film, helped by a common foe and by the events that unfold in the film.

Again, I’m trying to be deliberately vague here so as to not ruin things for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet.  The film is full of homages to past Trek installments — some of them will be obvious to even casual fans of the franchise and some will reward eagle-eyed long-time Trek fans who can probably recite the original 79 backwards and forwards.

The film will probably find wide appeal among more casual fans and I fully expect a certain segment of the Trek fandom to out and out hate the film.  Interestingly, Peter Weller is in the film as a Starfleet admiral and his character has a lot of echoes to one Weller played in the final season of Enterprise.

And, of course, since this is a J.J. Abrams movie, there’s lense flare.  But either I’m getting used to it or Abrams has toned down his penchant for the lense flare because it wasn’t quite as glaring as it was in the first installment.

Like the first installment, Trek into Darkness left me wanting to see more adventures with the rebooted crew and yearning for follow this crew on their own five year mission exploring space.   Hopefully we won’t have to wait four years for the next installment….

Oh and any Trek fan who doesn’t a lump in his or her throat when Christopher Pine recites the immortal lines, “Space, the final frontier…” …well, let’s just say you’re as emotionally detached as Spock wishes he could be in this film.

Much of Devil’s Bargain has the feeling of “been there, done that,” to it for the crew of the starship Enterprise. In many ways, it feels like a third-season episode of the classic series and if you’ve watched the show, you know that isn’t exactly a compliment.

The frontier world of Vesbius is facing destruction because a huge asteroid is bearing down on the planet. The population withdrew from the Federation years ago, but that doesn’t mean the Federation is willing to let them all die in the coming catastrophe. They send Captain Kirk and company to try and evacuate the colony, but the colonists refuse to leave the planet. We eventually discover why they can’t and won’t leave as well as finding out that the population is a bit xenophobic. Ironically, it’s Spock who comes up with a potential solution — warp over to Janus VI and pick up a batch of Horta to mine the asteroid and break it up into chunks that will be more manageable for the Enterprise to take out or that won’t cause as much damage upon impact to the planet.

Along the way, Kirk falls in love with the daughter of the planetary leader and spends a lot of time pondering this. There are entire passages in which one or the other reflect on their relationship and how its only going to be a limited thing, but by golly, they sure are in love. I can see what Tony Daniel was trying to achieve here, but the execution is a bit lacking.

Daniel’s first Trek novel has some potential, but it never really all comes together.

Each time I pick up a new Trek novel, my memory is cast back to my teenage years when I couldn’t get enough of the Pocket novels. I’m beginning to believe my memories of most of those books are better than the actual novels themselves. Or else my tastes have changed (in large part because of the output of one Peter David) and I don’t find the standard, cliche ridden Trek novel quite as satisfying as I once did. Either way, I have to admit this one didn’t so much disappoint as it’s guilty of not living up to my memories and expectations.

Once upon a time, Evelyn was a “good” girl, but when her family fell apart around her, she began to rebel against her good girl image. This included quitting most of her extra-curricular activities, dressing in a provocative fashion and secretly dating and sleeping with Todd. Her distant parents (she calls him The Stranger because he cheated on her mother and left for a while and her mother has thrown herself into work) are so disconnected that don’t realize that Todd is sneaking over most nights for a little extra-curricular activity with Evelyn right under their noses.

The only thing that matters to Evelyn is maintaining her GPA and escaping from Jacksonville to a better life in college.

And then things go from bad to worse when Evelyn discovers she’s pregnant and she can’t bring herself to tell Todd, much less her parents. Evelyn struggles with the decisions she must now face and worries about losing her one last friend and the implications of her decisions on what she will do about the baby. It doesn’t help that Todd abandons her, saying he can’t bring shame on his family by telling them about Evelyn or her condition.

Me, Him, Them and It pulls no punches when it comes to Evelyn and her situation. The story is about Evelyn’s struggles to find love and acceptance, not only from others but in herself. At one point, Evelyn has to take her mother to the Planned Parenthood office and have her counselor there reveal the big news because she can’t tell her mother herself. Evelyn’s struggle with what’s “right” in the situation based on her personal and family believes is also effectively rendered by author Caela Carter.

The novel is more than just a stern warning about the complications of teenage sex. It also could serve as a warning to those with kids to not get so caught up in your issues that you miss what’s going on in the lives of your child. Don’t wait for a crisis to come up to try and re-claim a family bond or to be a parent.

In the end, Evelyn finds hope in the form of her favorite aunt and her family, who agree to take her. But interestingly enough, a cross-country change of scenery isn’t a magical cure all for everything. As I said before, the book pulls no punches on the implications of Evelyn’s pregnancy and its impact on her and her family.

Set after the events of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 finds Tony Stark have a difficult time emotionally dealing with the events of last year’s huge hit.   Unable to sleep and obsessed with building an entire fleet of upgraded armors, Tony has isolated himself from the world and his friends.  What brings him back to the world is an attack  by the ruthless terrorist called the Mandarin on United States soil.  The blast puts Happy in the hospital in critical condition.  In a heated moment, Tony calls out the Mandarin on live television, swearing revenge and justice on the terrorist.

It’s one of multiple gripping moments during the course of Iron Man 3’s two hour plus running time.   And it’s one that is superbly played by actor Robert Downey, Jr., once again confirming what most of us have known since the original Iron Man installment – he’s the perfect actor to play Tony Stark and Iron Man.   Of course, it helps that Downey has a strong supporting cast who are all given a moment to shine in the sequel.

It’s also helped by a deft script which finds Tony haunted by his past — both of the Avengers incident in New York and other seeds he’s sewn over the course of his lifetime.  The film starts with events on New Year’s Eve 1999 and then moves forward to the present day where Tony doesn’t realize just how much of his past is coming back to haunt him.

Directed by Shane Black, Iron Man 3 is the follow-up installment the franchise needs to the Avengers and the one that most of us wanted after the original Iron Man.   Black ably takes over the helm from director Jon Favraeu and not only doesn’t miss a beat but casts a huge shadow for follow-up Marvel installments.

Simply put, Iron Man 3 is the best stand-alone Marvel movie yet.   It knocked the original out of my top three of all-time great superhero films and it’s a movie that I’m eager to see a couple of more times before its theatrical run ends.

And if you’re wondering if the movie is worth the extra money for 3-D, it’s a mixed bag.  The 3-D doesn’t really add much to the experience like it did in Avatar or Up.  

The film itself is the selling point here. Marvel has done it again, creating one of the best superhero movies of all time and the best movie of the year (so far).

And at this point, I shouldn’t have to tell you to stay through the credits for the post-credits teaser, right?

Had it not been for Gone Girl, I think I might have liked Deb Caletti’s first “adult” novel He’s Gone a great deal more.

Dani Keller wakes up on a typical Sunday morning to find her husband has gone missing. They had a mild argument the night before and Dani had a bit too much to drink at a party for her husband’s company. Initially not concerned, she assumes he’s out blowing off steam and will come back soon. However, as the hours stretch on and he won’t answer his cell phone and she discovers his car and his car keys have been left behind, Dani slowly begins to worry something more is going on than meets the eye.

Comparisons to Gone Girl are probably inevitable and I think that’s a bit unfair to both books. But it’s going to happen given that the two share a similar starting point for the narrative. He’s Gone works well when it’s filling in the details of how Dani and her husband met (they were both married to someone else at the time and began an affair) and we are slowly given glimpses of their life together. Where the novel tends to grinds its gears a bit too much are in the present situation as Dani reflects on their current life and marriage and the implications of whether her husband has left her or something more sinister is in play.

It all leads up to an ending that I found rather anti-climatic. I can see what Caletti is trying to achieve, but I’m not necessarily sure He’s Gone achieves it. A lot of this comes down to the fact that as a first-person narrator, Dani is a bit too reflective and honest with us. There’s a lot of telling us things that have happened or are happening.

In short, He’s Gone was good, but not great. I was hoping it would be something more.

While pursuing a lead about a young man pulled from the subway tracks by a mysterious woman, lawyer turned journalist McKenna Wright uncovers more than she bargained for. A video shot on a cell phone reveals the identity of the woman — someone who looks a lot like McKenna’s old friend Susan, who went missing five years before under mysterious circumstances. Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, McKenna begins to slowly peel back the layers of the current story and discover just how much of a connection is has to the disappearance of her friend all those years ago.

For the past couple of years, Alafair Burke has given readers some of the more entertaining, character driven legal thrillers that don’t have the name John Grisham attached to them. But with her newest novel If You Were Here, Burke tries something different from the legal thriller (though there are links to McKenna’s legal past and her time in the district attorney’s office) and goes in for a full-blown suspense thriller. Using short chapters, Burke keeps the surprises coming at a good clip that you’ll keep turning the pages and wondering just what the next dramatic revelation could or should be. It makes the novel a page turner, but not one that necessarily holds up well to scrutiny if you start to think too much either while taking a break from reading or once the entire picture is revealed.

It’s interesting that this novel is headed for shelves in time for the summer season because as I read it, I kept thinking just how well it would work as a beach or poolside read.

And while Burke’s previous works have taken a page from the legal thriller column and the works of Grisham, this one seems a bit more to take a page from the thrillers of Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series. (Eagle eyed readers will spot several homages to Reacher, though thankfully no one in this book is obsessed with coffee and that the fold-up toothbrush is the single greatest invention in the history of humankind).

This isn’t necessarily my favorite offering from Burke, but it’s a nice stand-alone novel that may open the door to readers discovering her other novels and enjoying those.

I’ve got to give the tie-in line of Doctor Who novels credit — at least the line is willing (once a year or so) to take a risk and give the fans something different from the standard tie-in novel.

First it was Michael Moorcock playing in the Doctor Who sandbox and now it’s Stephen Baxter. And the line is even willing to allow the big-name sci-fi and fantasy authors to play with other Doctor/companion teams besides the ones currently seen in the latest batch of episodes. That alone intrigues me enough that I’m willing to put aside my preconceptions and at least give these annual offerings a chance.

In the case of The Wheel of Ice, I have to admit I wondered how Baxter’s usual hard-SF style would fit with the less-than-hard-SF style of the classic series and, specifically, the second Doctor’s era. For the most part, it’s a successful hybrid. The result is a hard-SF based base-under-seige story in which Baxter comes closer than many other writers in the Doctor Who fold have come to capturing the second Doctor on the printed page.

The Wheel of Ice feels like a six-part Patrick Troughton era story, with all the strengths and weaknesses. The TARDIS trio of the Doctor, Jaime and Zoe come across well on the printed page and while the central dilemma and threat facing the TARDIS crew and a group of isolated humans is a bit more modern feeling, it all still works well enough to keep the pages turning. Baxter even throws in some continuity references to the second Doctor era to make fans happy.

All that said, the story isn’t perfect. There’s a lot of shuttling back and forth between various locations. And while that might work on the TV screen, in the novel it becomes a bit tedious. Add in that Baxter tries to translate Jaime’s Scottish accent to the printed page and there were moments that the novel became a bit frustrating.

For the most popular, scripted series on television, you’d think The Walking Dead would be a lot better than it is.  Or maybe I should say you’d think the series could be more consistent.   A solid stretch of episodes to start season three were ultimately let down by the back half of the season.

It’s hard to recall that in the fall, The Walking Dead did some solid work.  Establishing the Ricktatorship and introducing Woodbury and the Governor all worked well.  The show may have issues with characters (such as making them consistent) but it tried (and for the most part succeeded) in covering that up with unexpected deaths and an overriding sense of dread and tension as the two groups (the prison and Woodbury) headed toward their inevitable clash.

And then the second half of the season happened and things slowed down a bit.   The big complaint lobbied at the show last year was that once we got to the Farm, things slowed down a lot.  That complaint can also be leveled at the second half of season three that spend way too much time treading water as we waited for the inevitable clash between Rick and the Governor.   A clash, I might add, that felt pretty anti-climatic once we got to it.

In the first half of the season, we got to see the Governor as a different side of what Rick could become.  In the second half of the season, we got to see him go bats**t crazy over the death of his daughter and the loss of his eye.   And yet somehow we’re supposed to believe that he’s enigmatic enough a leader that no one in Woodbury – not even Andrea or Milton, who are closest to him – see through what he’s doing or even challenge him on it?     Yes, we got the scene where Andrea contemplates killing him in his sleep, but she fails to follow through with it.   It didn’t make much sense then and it really didn’t make much sense after Sunday’s episode where Andrea reveals that she was trying to make sure that no one died in the war of wills between Woodbury and the prison.

The problem with that is that it forces the character to look deliberately obtuse and as if she’s burying her head in the sand or putting her fingers in her ears and singing, “La, la, la, I can’t hear you” for much of the season.  Instead of being a consistent character, Andrea became little more than a plot device in the season (especially the second half) and it led to a lot of frustration with her.  In fact, I will have to admit that once we got to the big reveal that zombie Milton had managed to bite Andrea and that she was no longer going to be on the show, I admit I was a bit relieved.  At least we don’t have to see any more terrible character work from her.  (I’ll admit I think Lori Holden did the best with what she was given…she just didn’t have a lot to work with).

It also didn’t help that the other arc of the season – the Ricktatorship – also stumbled down the stretch. The first half of the season with Rick becoming overwhelmed by events happening around him really worked and gave Andrew Lincoln a lot to do.  But once we get past the initial raid on Woodbury, things were fumbled a bit.  The big meeting between Rick and the Governor should have been better than it was.  (It’s interesting that the most compelling scenes were not those of Lincoln and David Morrisey, but instead of the other supporting characters, each realizing that they beyond the ideological differences of their respective leaders, they really do have a lot of common ground).   The second half of the season saw Rick attempting to give up the role of absolute leader but still making decisions and informing people of them.   For example, telling them he was going to make this a democracy and then walking away before anyone could discuss it.  Or the decision to bring the Woodbury people to the prison.

The season finale was so centered on the Milton turns into a zombie and the Governor finally loses his mind that it failed to give me the scenes I wanted or needed.  For example, why did the group decide to live at the prison after it’s just had some of its defensive positions take out by the Governor?  Woodbury has electricity and seemed fairly safe, so why not take it over.  There also needed to be a scene of Rick and Tyreese that gives us a better understanding of why Tyreese would come back to the prison after Rick threw them all out earlier this year. (I’m guessing saying that you’re sorry you went crazy cause you were seeing visions of your dead wife wouldn’t build up much confidence).

And then there’s Carl.  The poor kid has to kill his mother and have Rick going crazy all season as his father.  Now it appears Carl has lost his way and his becoming a mini version of the Governor.  Rick looks like he has a huge problem child on his hands.   Of course, a lot of this would be more believable if a few weeks ago Carl wasn’t hesitating to kill someone and then in the season finale is killing a young man from Woodbury who is trying to surrender.

Again, the show seems more interesting in driving forward its latest plotline than it is in developing the characters in an interesting, meaningful way.

Does it mean I’ll stop watching The Walking Dead?   No.

Does it mean that the show has dropped from a watch first when new episodes show up on the DVR?  Yes.

I’m curious to see if the new producer can do what no one else has done – give us a consistently great season of the show.  Until then, the show will be a good one, not a great one.

When Sarah witnesses the suicide of a woman who looks just like her, she seized on the opportunity to leave behind her own life and take on the life of the other woman.  Taking on the identity of Beth, a police officer facing a disciplinary hearing, Sarah tries to scam her way out of Beth’s savings and to vanish. But Beth’s boyfriend and her police officer partner, Art, won’t let Beth/Sarah easily vanish into the ether nor will a set of birth certificates and another copy of Beth.

If you’ve seen the commercials on BBC America for the show, the big question of why there are multiple birth certificates, all a month apart, and why there are at least two other women who look like Beth have already been answered.  But give Orphan Black credit for making its pilot intriguing enough and offering enough other mysteries to keep me intrigued for the entire hour and curious to see where things will go once the big reveal is revealed.

A lot of the credit for this comes down to actress Tatiana Maslany, who is tasked with playing at least three versions of Sarah/Beth in the pilot.  Maslany is convincing in all the various aspects of the character. There’s a scene where the emotional impact of faking her own death as Sarah hits home and Maslany nails it.  She also does well at conveying the confusion she feels as the full implication of what she’s done and the mystery surrounding who she is becomes more and more apparent.

The pilot is a fascinating start to the series and I’m curious to see where it will take us.