Slightly Not Canceled

“Hello, my name is Elivorio Montoya. Somebody killed my father. You guys wanna’ get some beers?”

[Before you point out the “typo” in panel 3, you must remember that in the HEniverse, people usually have 4 fingers per hand… except for when they don’t.]hijinks-ensue-godspeed-you-fancy-bastard-book-300x300

I’ve never seen ABC’s Defying Gravity, so I can’t really comment on it’s potential uncancelation-non-demise. I’ve heard of it described as “LOST… in space[thanks to @teacher_geek and @timbond for inspiring Josh’s words in panel 1], and “Grey’s Anatomy in Space.” I don’t know about you, but those comparisons are on very opposite ends of the geek spectrum as far as I’m concerned. While one is a delicious geeky worm dangling precariously on the end of  a gleaming sci-fi hook, and the other is just the hook. Possibly with a piece of poo on it.

I have, however, seen The Princess Bride at least 150 times. 6 times or so in the last couple of months thanks to TNT-HD, which explains my recent preoccupation with it. It’s my wife’s favorite film and certainly holds a spot in my top 10. It is also one of my many  “stop everything and watch this when it comes on TV especially if it’s in HD” movies, along with Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and any movie with “Back To the Future” in the title.

BOOK UPDATE: The print proof arrived today. The colors look great and there are only a few things that need to be changed before all 1000 units are built, or hewn or whatever they do with books.

BACK UPDATE: Many of you have emailed, commented and Twittered with concern for my back pain issues. I’m happy to report that 3 weeks of rest, stretches and time spent on the Infernal Machine have brought me back to roughly 85% or so of normal operating spinal capacity. I don’t feel great, but I can get up and around with relatively little pain. Thank you all for the kind words and advice.

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26 Comments

  1. 5 fingers! Har har har.

    (yes. I'm that guy. The one who points out the obvious jokes for his own amusement. )

    I think Defying Gravity is a pretty good show. We really don't know what the "it" is and, just like in Lost, the "it" can really make all the difference. But, so far, it's been interesting and suspenseful with only a moderate amount of inconceivable bullshit.

  2. When you tweeted (twittered? twitted?) about this show, I'd never even heard of it. Was it a hapless victim of the "'Firefly' cancellation syndrome"? People who should have known about its existence didn't, so it gets the axe cause no one was watching? I am also among those who have seen 'Princess Bride' so many times I have it memorized backwards and forwards and sideways and frontways. My other "must sit and watch regardless of what else I have to do or what I'm late for" movie is 'Galaxy Quest'.

  3. ABC is dumb. This show could potentially be marketed to EVERYONE.

    Like Joel said, the LOST fans have their angle, as do the Gray's Anatomy fans. PLUS the show is kind of like a reality show with astronauts getting "voted" off the space-mission by the "beta-thing."

    The sci-fi is even toned down for the most part. Oh and there are multiple attractive girls of varying skin-tones.

    It's really sad that ABC can't see its potential…

  4. I watched it on Hulu, on a whim. Lots of good actors/actresses. I wasn't "sold" on the show until about episode 4, when we started getting real nitty-gritty about character interaction.

    I myself described the show to my husband as "Lost– in space." I have never watched Grey's Anatomy, nor do I care too. It's also a little bit Starship Troopers to me, the way they present prior character interactions — and then put them in space together.
    But I'm a gal who's a sucker for character-driven shows. I don't care what the plot does as long as I give a crap about the characters.

  5. Defying Gravity is actually not a bad show. It's basically Solaris+Sunshine with a large dose of tv drama thrown in. It sucks it probably won't get a second season.

  6. Didn't Ron Livingstone's eyebrows' earlier non-geeky series, Standoff or something, get axed as well? Haven't really watched him in anything non-BoB tv thing, but still the guy (and his fabulous 'brows) needs proper work, sci-fi or not.

    -D

  7. Waaaahhhh! Defying Gravity is one of the few shows i've been watching. It's no BSG, but it's got something for everyone. We don't know what IT is (but I'm assuming alien with control issues) but I'm enjoying the near future sci-fi and the astronaut training and yes, even the relationships. (I think that's where the Grey's Anatomy comparisons come from.)

    Personally, I like it much better than lost. Less than Firefly, but I assumed that it had much wider appeal that FFs Western in Space aesthetic.

  8. Since this comic, I've watched the entire (extremely brief) series. It's not bad, though it's nothing like the first half of the Virtuality pilot (all I could sit through.) It might actually be quite like it, but it's not a reality tv show set in space, with a director onboard, etc, even if they might show quite a bit of handheld video recording.

    I agree that Mr. Livingston needs to be in many, many things, because the dude can apparently make me laugh at things that nobody else can. Namely his own facial expressions. I enjoyed all 10 episodes of Standoff as well.

    The good(ish) news is that the Canadian station that carrys the show did not cancel it, so those of you that know how to use "The Internet" can probably figure out a way to finish out the season, as long as you don't mind a fractional maple leaf around your ratings box.

    @Alwyn: Pretty sure we'll figure out what IT is in ep 9, unless they pull a gigantic clump of drama our of their rectums and delay the reveal.

  9. I have no idea how anyone would describe Defying Gravity as anything like Lost.
    Because there’s a mystery? Wow, that certainly is Lostish …

    I like DG.
    It’s certainly not the best Sci-Fi ever but I’m happy about every well done show of that genre.

  10. Stop everything movies-PB of course; Big Trouble in Little China, In & Out (just added), Dark City, The Incredibles, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle (been popping up on pay cable recently), How to Train Your Dragon, and oh god I am so easily distracted.

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