How to use this Page

Many TV shows have returned to production and with that comes a shift in the balance of power. Check out who is coming and going on your favorite shows, see how you can win a trip to the Emmy’s and learn which favorite fandom will launch new webisodes this very week. It’s all right here.  Read on, MacDuff.

MORE OR LESS

According to TVGuide, Grey’s Anatomy is looking to extend Lauren Stamile’s (Rose) run on the series, so don’t expect that McDreamy triangle to end so soon.

On Numb3rs, Aya Sumika (Liz) has been upgraded from recurring to regular.  I love Liz, so I’m thrilled.

On the downside, two Panther players, Gaius Charles (Smash) and Scott Porter (Jason) have been demoted to “recurring” characters in the upcoming season of Friday Night Lights. The producers site a sagging budget as the reason.

You’ll also be seeing a lot more of The Justice League on Smallville this season as Justin Hartley (Green Arrow) has been locked in for 12 episodes.  According to TV Guide, “He’ll start this new chapter by gathering Aquaman and Black Canary to rescue Clark. Alan Ritchson and Alaina Huffman will reprise their roles, as will Phil Morris, whose Martian Manhunter also appears in the opener, titled ‘Odyssey.’”

CASTING COUCH

Gilmore Girls‘ star Matt Czuchry will star in the new film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, based on the best-selling book by Tucker Max.

Ntare Mwine joins the cast of Heroes as an artist who is “close to many of the original heroes”.  I just report ‘em, I don’t always understand ‘em.

ENTER HERE

Want to be a Red Carpet reporter? People.com is a holding a contest on YouTube and the winner will cover the Emmy Awards for the site. Show them you have the right stuff by entering a demo video before July 21.

WATCH THIS

Sci-Fi Channel has renewed its Ani-Monday block of anime programming, moving it to Monday nights at 1 a.m. starting in July. The lineup will feature movies, series and shorts from Starz Media’s anime distribution arm, Manga Entertainment.

Among the movies set to air during the Ani-Monday block are Strait Jacket, Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost in the Shell, Jack, Dead Leaves, Go Shogun and Negadon: The Monsters From Mars.  The block will also feature the TV premieres of the classic anime series Now and Then, Here and There and Descendants of Darkness, as well as the U.S. debuts of Gurren Lagann and Gundam 00.

SITE OF THE WEEK

Calling all Heroes fans! Feed the need with a new trilogy of webisodes beginning Monday on NBC.com.  The series will introduce Echo De Mille, an ordinary mailman with super powers. New webisodes premiere each Monday this month.

Avatar returns, The Prisoner is in the works, and there’s something strange going on around The Fringe. It’s a quick look at the fannish TV news.

IN THE WORKS
AMC is developing an American version of the cult British classic The Prisoner. Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen are slated to star in the series about a government agent who finds out the hard way that there’s no quitting the biz. He’s drugged, kidnapped and dropped in “The Village,” a mysterious community where people are just numbers and from which there is no escape.  The original was known for its perplexing plot and highly metaphoric imagery, a style that is much more popular today in TV. I expect the new series will be highly ficable!

CASTING COUCH

Clea DuVall is taking over co-pilot duties on Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality.

WATCH THIS

Calling all Avatar: the Last Airbender fans! The last 10 new episodes of book three, including the showdown between Aang and the Firelord, are about to begin. 

Nickelodeon bows the new Avatar episodes beginning Monday, July 14, with an hour-long special, The Boiling Rock, on Wednesday.  The week will end with the debut of the 2-hour TV movie Sozin’s Comet, Saturday, July 19, 8-10p.   Meanwhile, that same week, Nicktoons Network will host daily Avatar 5-hour marathons each day, Monday-Saturday, July 14-19, featuring 10 episodes of Avatar each day.

And don’t forget, Stargate Atlantis returns for a fifth season this Friday, July 11.

READ THIS

Need a Lost fix?  ABC.com is here to help with their new “Lost Book Club.”

The club gives fans a new insight to a number of books that have been referenced or seen on episodes of Lost. Each week, a new book will be introduced with a synopsis and reference of how it fits into the show. Then a message board area will be created for the discussion.  Books include Sawyer reading Watership Down, Juliet’s book club reading Carrie and an orientation film hidden behind The Turn of the Screw.

LISTEN TO THIS
Fox’s new radio ads for their upcoming X-Files-ish series, Fringe are leaving many people scratching their heads in wonder. First up is a typical auto dealership radio spot which is disrupted first by static and then the words “find the pattern.” Next up is a news report that is disrupted and finally a strange report over a police scanner about a wedding party who can’t remember a thing.

The commercial spots make no mention of Fringe, though there is a whispered “Fox” at the end of each indicating that it’s likely a promo for a TV show.  Listen in:

According to Fox, these radio ads are just the start of the convoluted and cryptic campaign they have planned. Have you spotted “the pattern?” If you have a link to a part of the Fringe puzzle, post it in the comments below.

SITE OF THE WEEK

Tired of seeing your favorite show canned because of a ratings system that is horribly outdated? Viewers with Voices agrees with you and they’re banning together to give Nielsen what for.  The forum is hoping to united the fannish communities for shows such as Jericho, Moonlight and Dark Angel into one, loud and proud force to be reckoned with. The long term goal? To rework the method of collecting TV ratings so it gives a more accurate sampling of how many people are actually watching a show.

Sadly, the one thing ratings will never be able to evaluate is the level of enthusiasm fans have for any given show. Grey’s Anatomy might be one of the highest rated programs on TV, but how many fans of that show will buy the mug, the books, the TV shirt and convention tickets to see the stars?

YOUR TURN

I can’t do this alone people. Use the comment section to add your casting news, production news, con reports, vids, podcasts, charity efforts — if it’s about a fan favorite TV show we want to hear about it.  NO SPOILERS in the comments please, but feel free to link to them with a proper spoiler warning.

FanLibber Evai gives us the down low on the girl from down below

“This world is called fate.
The binding thread coils itself around fragile helpless prejudice…
Hatred… Sadness…
It all ends in tears.
Beyond the Curtain, at midnight, any pending revenge will be taken.”
- the opening of Hell Girl

Enma Ai is the main character of this rather serious anime series. She appears to be a young girl with flowing black hair and brilliant red eyes who lives between worlds in a place that seems to be caught in eternal twilight. She resides there with her grandmother, whom you never see during the course of the series. Ai has been given a task as atonement for the brutal revenge that she took on her village. In effect, it is Ai’s job to take revenge for others and ferry those they chose to hell.

Ai does this by way of Hell’s Correspondence, which is a website that can only be accessed at midnight. You simply type in the name of the person you wish to take revenge on and click the send button. Yet, if it were that simple, wouldn’t we all be taking revenge. There is a catch, when you curse someone, “two holes will open” and you as well will fall into hell. It doesn’t happen right away, as it does with the person you’ve taken revenge on, it happens later when you die.

Ai has three associates: Wanyudo, Ren Ichimoku, and Hone Onna. When these three are not assisting Ai in her work, they are transformed into straw dolls, which Ai gives to those asking for revenge and to complete the revenge contract - pull the red string and the covenant is made.

When I first started watching this anime, I was amazed. It is beautifully animated and just when you think it’s just a bad-guy-a-week anime, it’s not. Each episode is self contained, first featuring the person who wishes revenge, then the person whom revenge may be take upon and the circumstances as to why, and finally everything comes together. In episode eight, there is an introduction of more recurring characters that deepen the plotline, Hajime Shibata and his daughter Tsugumi Shibata.

The first season was aired October 2005 to April 2006 followed by the second season (Jigoko Shoujo-Futakomori), which premiered October 2006. The title of the third season is Jigoku Shōjo Mitsuganae. I have also found volumes of the first season available to buy on Amazon.com. As for cosplay…I’m having difficulty finding anything except for a few pictures of some cosplayers portraying Ai.

Either way, once you get past the bad-guy-of-the-week phase, it is a fantastic anime with a well thought out plotline.

Anime News

Right Stuf, Inc is celebrating 21 years as one of the first anime producers and distributors of Anime. I highly recommend checking out their online storefront. In the past they have brought us The Irresponsible Captain Tyler, Gravitation, Ninja Nonsense and a great deal more! Hope they’re around for another 21 years!

Anime DVD Releases

Aria the Animation - September 30, 2008
(Based on Kozue Amano’s Manga)

Enma: A Victorian Romance, Collection 1 - June 24, 2008

Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel - Jul 29 2008

Anime Convention Schedule

Supanova Pop Culture Expo
June 27-29, 2008
Claremont Showground
Perth, WA Australia

Northern Anime Festival
June 28-29, 2008
Durham College, UOIT Oshawa Campus
Oshawa, Ontario

Anime Expo
July 3-6, 2008
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA

PortConMaine
July 3-6, 2008
Eastland Park Hotel
Portland, ME

Dick King Smith is such an inspiration. He started his writing career later in life, after having already tried his hand at farming, teaching, and TV presenting (and doing them all well, I might add, although he claims in his biography, Chewing the Cud, that he was not a very good farmer.) He has written dozens of books, all of them effortlessly readable, giving the impression that anyone with a good story to tell can sit down and crank it out. His most recent offering (at least on this side of the pond) is Hairy Hezekiah, about a Bactrian camel who is lonely in his zoo environment and sets off to find friendship and adventure in the big world. His journey takes him to the Safari Park, Shortseat, located in the English countryside. I have a sneaking suspicion that Shortseat is modeled after Longleat Safari Park, in Wiltshire. The fact that Longleat is the ancestral home of the Marquess of Bath, and the aristocrat in this book is called The Earl of Basin supports my theory. I have visited Longleat--long time ago, now--so perhaps I've actually met Hairy Hezekiah himself. King-Smith uses a friendly, conversational voice for his story, and this tone is reinforced by Nick Bruel's humorous black and white illustrations. This is just right for early chapter readers and will get them primed for some of King-Smith's meatier books, such as Babe: The Gallant Pig and (my personal favorite) Martin's Mice.