TV Updates

I realize its been a while since I wrote one of these. So without further ado:

Superhero Squad is a new show on Cartoon Network. I had initially though it was just chibi Marvel with fart jokes, but it actually is a bit better than that. Its a good idea to leave a lot of superhero backgrounds and locations behind when you watch. It is chibi Marvel with lots of Marvel stereotypes and some other stereotypes turned on their heads: Thor is the dumb blond and speaks in bad Renaissance English. Iron Man is a flirt, but he never takes off even his faceplate. Doom is almost irredeemably evil, but even he recycles. Silver Surfer is a bit of a hippy. Basic plot: Dr. Doom had put together an ultimate weapon, the Infinity Sword, but Iron Man blowed it up good. It broke into fractals, which have strange powers that change whoever touches it with their bare skin. Collect the fractals!
Some voice notes: Tom Kenny is Iron Man, along with a number of other roles, but his Iron Man voice is some of the closest you'll hear to unadulterated Tom Kenny. You will hear occasional echoes of Townsville's Mayor. Steve Blum is Wolverine, but I think he would have been a better fit for the Iron Man voice. Sometimes the two characters are a bit hard to tell apart. The voice that amuses me most? Charlie Adler as the voice of Doctor Doom. Yes, Buster Bunny's all grown up and boy did he get angry! Seriously, juxtapose those two characters for a minute.

OK, now that you're feeling better...
Next up is Titan Maximum on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. This is produced by the same people who do Robot Chicken and it shows. It is a bit less intelligent and more belligerent than Robot Chicken which is a pity, but I guess Adult Swim calls for a lot of that. You'll also recognize many voices from the parent show. Basic plot: team of pilots for a combining robot have to save the solar system from the rampages of a former member of the crew. It is, in many many ways, Voltron meets Robot Chicken.

Guardian of the Spirit is near the end of its storyline, from what I can see, but its good to have a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Anime voicegeeks will recognize several of the voices on the series. I think the voice pool is contracting for English dubbing, which worries me on several levels - not that the actors are bad, but not much new talent is coming in. The acting is great here, and generally well-dubbed; but the animation is what grabs you. The quality is more common to movies than TV shows, with some of the best anime terrains and forests I have ever seen. Basic plot: Second prince of the kingdom is implanted with a spirit egg. Father wants him dead; mother does not, and hires a bodyguard to protect the prince. Bodyguard happens to be particularly talented with the spear. There is a very solid cast of characters and none of them are one-dimensional. This is my favorite of the shows in this post.

A very close second is Monster, anime on ScifiSkyPhy. The animation isn't quite as good as on Guardian of the Spirit, but that show really sets a new bar. At any rate, the plot: an extremely talented neurosurgeon tries to live an ethical and moral life, but his life takes a warped turn when he saves a young boy who is a fraternal twin. The young boy turns out to be irredeemably evil by almost every measure, taking lives simply as an exercise. What do you do when you save the life of someone who has the potential to be worse than Hitler?
The show takes place in Germany in the late 1980s and 1990s. There is no science fiction, no fantasy, no robots, nothing that absolutely had to be done animated. It's a very good series and I recommend it highly if you like a good thriller.

White Collar is a new show on USA. Basic plot: a felon, very handsome clean-cut artist, arranges for a work release program with the FBI, working in New York with the agent who captured him. Subpolt: he wants to find his absent girlfriend, who sends him cryptic clues. Its decent, generally speaking, but it has a few rough spots on relationships. I think it'll come together later in the season. This one already has fans 'shipping relationships, notably the artist, the agent and the agent's amazing wife. She is an amazing wife.

ABC has a new a cop show named Castle now in its second season (edited from original post). Basic plot synopsis is at the beginning of the show: author of mysteries wants to base a character on a real-life cop and has found the cop he wants to use as the model. He persuades the mayor to get him status to tag along with the cop in question. My wife thinks that the elements aren't quite right but the show works anyways. The show needs a bit more depth. Its worth a look, if nothing else if you want to see Dr. Horrible's foe Captain Hammer playing a prat of an author.

One final note in case you missed it: Looney Tunes are back on cartoon Network for about an hour a day. I for one have missed them.