TV Talk - Roswell (the original WB series)

One pro of getting rid of themed months is that I can talk about anything I want to now. I usually threw anything sci-fi related into the month of May, and this would have been thrown in there. Just recently, Liz and I went through the entirety of the original Roswell show. I gotta make that distinction because there’s a reboot on the CW called Roswell: New Mexico, and I haven’t gotten to that one yet. I just had to revisit the original, ya know?

Roswell debuted in 1999 on the WB. It was helmed by Jason Katims, who’s also known for shows like Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. Johnathan Frakes was even an executive producer and directed a few episodes. It was loosely based on a YA book series called Roswell High, and the writers of that series even helped out here. It lasted for three seasons total and ended in 2002. The show ended up getting cancelled after the 2nd season, but it got revived for one last season on the UPN network. It basically went through what Buffy: The Vampire Slayer went through in its later years. At least Buffy got two extra seasons when compared to just one.

Movie Talk - Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins

After over a decade and a small webseries, we’re finally getting a new Mortal Kombat movie. This is one I’ve been curious about for some time now. I almost forgot it was being released until I started to see promos for it. The trailer for the movie looked pretty cool, but I am noticing the lack of Cage, man. Maybe this Cole Young character will liven things up, I’m not sure. One thing the new movie brought to mind was a previous “gem” from the past. It would be Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, an animated unofficial tie-in to the live-action movie that was also released in 1995. As YouTuber Phelous called it, “It’s the worst of 2D and 3D animation.”

I actually owned this thing back in the day. I talked my mom into getting it. She didn’t mind since I had already played some of the games at the time. You can thank my uncle for that. I vaguely remember seeing the video a few times. I also remember the trailer to the live action movie being included as well as a 20-minute behind-the-scenes look at the movie. Since then, I’ve seen the feature online as well as some hilarious reviews of it. I remember Phelous looked at it, and another reviewer from the old Channel Awesome days (Benzai?) reviewed it.

Favorites - 15 Favorite Black Characters in Sci-Fi

The science fiction genre has given us a crapton of characters to follow and root for. When it comes Black folk, it gets a little tough. You may see one or even two of us running around or being a side piece somewhere. Even when you see one of us playing a character, they’re sometimes playing an alien. Just guess why you won’t see someone like Guinan, Worf, and Tuvok from Star Trek or Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. I could make a case for Teal’C from Stargate: SG-1 since he is technically human, but I’ll leave him off this one. It gives me a chance to look for other characters outside of these big sci-fi franchises.

So, here are my favorite black characters in the genre. One limitation I gave myself was that I wouldn’t include any superheroes on this list, so no Storm or John Stewart. I actually made a list similar to this years ago, and I wanted to look in other places where there are some cool characters. I might break that rule for a couple, but I’ll only go so far. As usual, it’s a bit of a random list, but I’ll put my favorites up top. You only can guess who’ll be first.

Movie Talk - Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

One movie I’ve been meaning to get to here is one you know I might like: Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You have one of my favorite superheroes mixed with one of my favorite hero teams. It’s a winning combination! Yet, I actually haven’t read the miniseries that was based on this movie. I'm behind on a lot of stuff, okay? I actually just started to read it on DC Infinite, so I can’t tell ya how accurate the movie is to the book. I do know that some licenses were taken (the turtles are apparently in the same universe as Batman is one example, but all you need to know is that a lotta fighting is happening.

The movie was released in 2019, and this was one rare occasion where I actually bought the movie outright. I had to see this. I even rewatched it last year with Liz, and she enjoyed it as well. The voice talents include some recognizable voices like John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Eric Bauza, and Troy Baker. One surprise is that Baker’s back as Batman… and the Joker. Talk about pulling double duty. Heck, the dude’s done both voices in other properties before, so I say go for it.

"It's a Video Game!" - Ghost of Tsushima

Since Cyberpunk 2077 ended up being a bust for the PS4, I almost shelled out some money for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. While perusing PSN, I did come across a game that piqued my interest sometime last year. Some said that it was more like Assassin’s Creed than the current AC games are. Being pretty curious, and seeing that I could get this for 40 bucks, I decided to check out Ghost of Tsushima and test that claim out. It took three weeks to do it, but I think I’m ready to go over my findings.

Ghost of Tsushima was released exclusively for Sony in 2020 by Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch is known for also developing the Infamous series and the Sly Cooper series. I’ve played the first two Infamous games, but I haven’t finished Infamous: Second Son yet… need to get back that one. Anyway, the game was pretty much lauded by folk. I started to play this during my quarantine. Now that I’ve finished, what do I think?