Top 10 in TV shows...

It's another list. This time we're counting down the top ten TV shows according to SF Daddy!

As always, I'm gearing this list with the kiddos in mind. No it's not going to be a teletubbie list, they were way out there even for this freaky SF dad.

Torchwood - I'm not going to pretend that I've seen this whole series yet, but after the first few episodes and the praise I've been reading, as a spin off of Dr. Who which also has some smart kick-butt female action stars, this one makes it to my list.

Image by Lunchbox Photography via Flickr

Star Wars The Clone Wars - Star Wars is known for its leading ladies with attitude. The storyline in this animated venture is not short on them either. Joining Padme is Ahsoka, a Jedi sidekick for Anakin who is almost more hotheaded than he is. Season two introduced Arra Sing an awesome bounty hunter with a taste for collecting Jedi. We fanboys have been talking about Ms. Sing since her 2-second cameo in Episode I. Next season we're treated with more from her and another Jedi favorite who was spared at the last minute from death in Episode III in the edit room floor. Shak Ti joins the show this fall. Great thing about this series is that it's available online. http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode001.html





Pushing Daisies -

Image via Wikipedia

We're starting a theme here... much like Moonlighting and Cheers, where the two leads are cursed in some way from ever being together. In most cases the show's demise is the only thing that ever comes out of the leads finally getting together. Pushing Daisies was a great confection. Literally. The Pie Man made magical pies from rotten fruit he brought back to life with his magically touch. He can do that trick on animals and people too, but a second touch sends them back to their death. Too bad he brought his secret love back to life one day. Now if he ever touches her again she's dead for good. So instead they bake pies and solve murder mysteries together in a beautiful technicolor dream like comic book land created by Bryan Fuller and EP'd by Barry Sonnenfield- another personal hero.

Image by darkchacal via Flickr

Legend of the Seeker - The ladies in this house love this show mostly because of Kahlan Amnell – the Mother Confessor.

As a Confessor, she has the power to magnify the love a person has within them for her, allowing her to control the person. This power allows her to serve the people of the Midlands, who respect and fear her.  In Kahlan's quest to defeat Rahl, her role is to protect the Seeker with her life. She develops a deep love for Richard, which is torment for them both since her Confessor's powers would be inadvertently unleashed in a moment of intimacy, making it impossible for Richard and Kahlan to act on their feelings for each other. Executive producer Robert Tapert describes Kahlan as "a female action hero for 2009.

Firefly - That's right! Yee Ha! This is one of those shows you're going to hear a lot about until you actually sit down and rent it. You just have to give it a try. We attempted to watch during it's run but the networks messed us all up. So we eventually discovered this gem on DVD. Go ahead and put it in your Netflix cue now...



Georgia Outdoors - Our Georgia PBS station presents topics about our state from gardening to paleontology. Take that Pokemon! Check out your PBS station to see what you can learn about your own backyard.



Let's continue to bend the parameters of this TV list. As TV is evolving, let's add some space to for a couple of internet shows and series.


The Guild - Sweet little nuggets of pure fun. Just geeky enough to try out a few online games and even more dairing to actually go out and meet some of the guild in real life when invited to a Pirate meet, I know this series a little too well. The DVDs are available from Netflix and they stream as one long 'movie' but if the short nuggets are more you speed, check them out on their native site: http://www.watchtheguild.com/

Sad, but here's a Flash video of the first episode. Sad because it won't show up on your iPad (yet?).



TED Talks. If you haven't discovered TED yet, go now.  It's more Science and Fantasy than fiction. Real people with fantasies of how we can change the world one person at a time. Here's one on the Happiness Index. Love these things... they even show up in your Tivo if you let them! We've blogged about several of these in the past.

Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world

When the girls are older....

Image via Wikipedia

Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel - The monsters in these shows are a bit much for our smaller audience, but the kick-butt girls are certainly a good frolic when we're older. Our most-est favorite episode "Hush" just made it onto the SyFy / Blastr list of best episodes ever. What qualifies as a best episode? You know the episode by name is a good indication! Buffy is so well written and smart. We were just married and growing up a few years ahead of Buffy, but Ms. SF Daddy used the show as a topic of conversation with her high school kids. She often found common ground with the kids through the shows they both enjoyed. She liked using this show in particular to talk about teen issues and the portrayal of women in media. Good Stuff.






And okay, this one's for the very little ones: Have you seen Dinosaur Train? Really? Another PBS offering. We don't graze through the channels like a lot of kids do, but one morning we had a flat tire and found ourselves at the local Firestone. While waiting for the tire to get fixed, we sat through an episode of Dinosaur Train. My 6 year old (Red2) fell in love. Sure it didn't hurt that there's a little Henson magic behind the scenes. Figures. They aren't just cute dinos, but they actually get the real names out in a catchy way.


Very much a different list for you. Can't wait so see your list!

Top twelve films... Not a dirty dozen

Alex J. Cavanaugh commanded: do The Movie Dirty Dozen Blogfest. Please be sure to click on his name to check out everyone else that's participating.

In five minutes this is the list I come up with for my best dirty dozen films. Better than a "best of" list, more like a, "you may not realize what you've missed" list. Yes a science fiction tinge, but that's what we've come to expect here. My list is a little 'shallow' into the depths of Science Fiction films, but still accessible for anyone who doesn't want to go TOO deep.

We'll explore these films and more in future posts. This blog exercise has been really thrilling. I've learned a lot about a bunch of strangers and confirmed quite a few things about films and share experiences.

These links are to Amazon, I'd rather give you links to Netflix. (I don't like purchasing those flat round plastic things anymore, myself, but Amazon has this amazing tool for making these links easy, and they are an excellent tool to search out your movies.)

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back - We had one of those HUGE satellite dishes when I was kid and while flipping through the Canadian channels I stumbled upon a broadcast of TESB in French. I popped in a tape and caught the second half. We like to quote Lucas as saying these are silent movies, but they really aren't. Pop in your DVD and listen to the French audio tracks... if you don't speak French. LISTEN to the sound and emotion and how LITTLE dialog there really is in the city in the clouds.

This odd trailer begins to show you want I mean. It's hosted from CineMagica.

• Blade Runner
• Galaxy Quest
• Firefly /Serenity - Serenity is a continuation of the TV series and should be seen after viewing the Firefly series. I'd have to say that if we weren't a house of browncoats, then at the very least we're avid Joss Wedon fans.
• Twin Peaks / Fire walk With Me
• Brazil
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Star Trek First Contact
• Contact
• Sleeper - Woody Allen's oddball science fiction entry. Not a whole lot to say about it, just perfect.

• 12 Monkeys
• A Brief History of Time - VHS

"Should the girls see all of these just yet?"

No, but most would be fine...maybe not Twin Peaks. I'm not sure I was old enough to see it when it came out and I was in college. If you do go off to see Twin Peaks, you do have to watch the TV series FIRST. The movie is a prequel, but will have far less impact if you don't know any of the characters. Fire Walk with Me was the first and only movie I ever had to see again immediately. At the end of the credits I walked out and bought a second ticket. The music of Badalamenti cannot be better. Haunting.

This week we heard tributes (?) to him in True Blood's 2nd episode of season 3. Did you hear him as we entered Bill's basement to looking for the corpse...?

Seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time.

Image via Wikipedia

I pray you'll bring sanity back to the Senate.

J is six and today we watched Star Wars Episode I. Here are J's comments.

Never tell a Jedi, "You're under arrest."

Who was that white lady? (Watching the pod race.)

What kind of fabric are their clothes made of? (Anakin and his mother's on Tatooine.) Information about the costumes. And another article.

I'd bet the fabric would be something synthetic since it's a desert planet, but here you could go for a linen or bamboo fabric.

Yoda: " I sense much fear in you." to Anakin.
J: "Yoda's a good senser."

Queen Amidala: "I pray you'll bring sanity back to the Senate."
J: "She prays? She believes in God."

Yoda: "May the Force be with you."
J: "And also with you. (giggle) Church." (That's Daddy's joke, now she knows the reference first hand.)

Queen Amidala: "Jar Jar, I need your help."
J: "Oh! Gungans have fine armies!!!" (J puts it all together and remembers what Jar Jar said earlier in the film.)

Star Wars Trilogy on DVD

I've been waiting for years to see this happen and it's finally here. Now I've had it for a few weeks and I haven't even watched it all. It's too bad the 3-year-old it too young for it. I'd be watching them for sure then.

Okay, I did take a look at the ending of Return of the Jedi to see how GL added HC to the ending, replacing the older version of Anakin with the younger version. It gets my vote for better. I also liked the whole ending better than I did when I saw it in the theaters. GL replaced the ewok ho-down with a more global, er, galactic celebration of the beginning of the end of the Empire and it was much more emotional.