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Q&A # 202: Flashback: What comic-based television series would you like to see?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Flashback: What comic-based television series would you like to see?

ANIKA

I thought so when I first saw it and I still think so:

DREDD would make a great television series. It didn’t work as a film for me, but as the pilot for a television series that wasn’t picked up so they said ‘screw it, let’s add a bunch of nonsensical 3D and call it a movie’. . . it worked too well. I just really wish my hypothetical network that passed on “Dredd the Series” actually existed so I could bang on their door and shout WHY!

Seriously, hypothetical television network, make this!

GABBY

Well, one of my answers is already coming to life on the small screen.

As for the others, for a long while I wished Fables would become a TV show, but Once Upon a Time kind of ruined that. Not to say that OUaT isn’t good… it’s just not what I think Fables could have been. I’m also holding out hope for an Alias series, and it seems like the rumor mill agrees with me.

The TV show I would *most* like to see, though, is a Sandman series.

A series centered on the Endless siblings, it could also have an episodic quality. We could see, for example, Death interacting with various humans about to die, or Dream venture into people’s nightmares. I think there is a huge potential to exploit the sibling dynamics between the 7 Ds, and would love to see it unfold on my screen.

Superheroes are great and everything, but The Endless? They kind of rule.

MARIE

My choice has technically already been a television show, but was unfortunately canceled during its prime. Greg Weisman’s Gargoyles was an animated series that debuted in the 90s and was one my favorite shows of all time growing up. The show aged pretty well too. Looking back through the DVDs, you could see that it had plots that were well-rendered, characters with deep inner-conflict, and great dialogue that could be enjoyed by both kids and adults.

Unfortunately, Weisman left the show during the third season due to internal conflicts. By then, the show had taken a completely different direction and most fans agreed that it was non-canonical. The comic series, however, picked up where the second season left off, and answered a lot of those burgeoning questions that the third season so clearly failed at handling.

Still, while I found the comics immensely satisfying I still wish that they had actually been animated. If not Gargoyles, then at least some of the spin-off comics that Weisman had also planned like Gargoyles: Pendragon and Gargoyles: Timedancer .

My runner-up choice? Runaways. Oh my Grod, Runaways.

run

SAM

Last summer I took a screenwriting workshop, and for my main project I wrote a loose adaptation of Kate Spencer/Manhunter as a sort of pilot episiode teleplay. I think a Manhunter series would be a perfect mix of procedural and ass kicking martial arts bad assery.

There are reasons I think Kate Spencer would make for good TV. Besides her day job as a criminal attorney (I think prosecutor works better than defense attorney, for drama), she’s a single parent with a precocious kid, has an ex-husband who’s still involved in her life, is an on-again-off-again smoker, and has some anger issues. Basically she’s complex and, in the hands of the right actress, that would be pretty great to watch.

Of course, I know it’ll never happen. It would have way too similar a feel to the already-popular, male-driven show Arrow (which I gave up on halfway through the season). And Manhunter is even less well known in the mainstream than Green Arrow and his rogues galleries. Plus we all know how well the Wonder Woman thing went… But in a perfect world, Kate Spencer would be kicking some ass on my TV every week.

So what about you? What comic-based television series would you like to see?

Q&A # 199: What are your media consumption habits? Netflix? Hardcover books? Digital comics? Tell us how you access the stories we all love.

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What are your media consumption habits? Netflix? Hardcover books? Digital comics? Tell us how you access the stories we all love.

GABBY

If trade paperbacks were the only type of books one could buy, that would make me the happiest girl in the world. I love TPBs; how the art on the covers is usually prettier, how it folds every which way, how they fit on a shelf.

You can’t tell me that’s not pretty.

I limit the comics I purchase to the Whedonverse, and the other shows that I wish to follow in comic book format. The Silver Snail(https://www.facebook.com/SilverSnailComicsOttawa) in Ottawa is my preferred location for all things comics; they are quite friendly and there are many female employees that are super welcoming.

Recently, I bought a Nexus 7. I’ve been cutting back on paper-book purchases, and my student-on-a-budget wallet thanks me for it. It’s a great tablet; I mostly use the Kobo app to read e-books, and I love getting the achievements! They’re like virtual stickers and you can collect them depending on how many pages or what kinds of books you read. It really appeals to the overachiever in me.

JESSICA

My favorite way to consume media has always been (and will forever be) through reading – hardcovers and paperbacks, fantasy epics and cheesy time-travel historical romances, I love it all. Most of the fandoms I’m really passionate about originated with books (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game), and reading traditional books satisfies my craving for narrative in a way that no other media outlet does. I love the way that when you are reading a book, especially one that may not be commercially popular, the world inside becomes your own. You are granted a privileged access into the hearts and minds of the characters, and it’s yours to take advantage of whenever you have the time to delve into its pages. Books have the power to suck me into them emotionally. I’ve noticed that if terrible things are happening to the main character in a book I’m really invested in, I will be seriously depressed and sad. Sometimes I don’t even realize why until I notice that there is nothing terrible happening in my life–it’s all in the book! As much as I love television, movies, and comics, none of them have the power to stick with me in the way that books do. I rarely buy them new, although I do make exceptions for special occasions, like a new release by a favorite author. Just let me loose in a used bookstore (my favorite is McKay’s, back home in Knoxville) with $10 and I’ll be happy for at least a week.

SAM

Well, I play video games mostly on my XBox, with a few exceptions (Journey, the Uncharted series, and some older games I play on my PC, mobile gaming on my iPhone), which has also become something of a media center for me. I watch most of my TV via either Hulu or Netflix, and occasionally will watch stuff on the web if they don’t offer it anywhere else and I don’t want to wait for Netflix, like Pretty Little Liars, Lost Girl, and Elementary. I watch most movies via Netflix, unless I’m so excited for something that I absolutely have to see it in the theater. For newer releases, if I happened to miss it in the theater but really want to see it, I’ll probably rent it via Amazon Instant or Zune or something.

As far as reading goes, I read books mostly on my Kindle these days. I’m in love with my Kindle. I read so much more now that I have it. I used to be a huge reader; I’d read a book a week from age 10 through law school, but I haven’t read so much in recent years. Now I read all the time. I’ll read the occasional paper book, usually if someone’s lent it to me, but I’d much rather carry my Kindle around with me than a book. Comics I read almost exclusively on my phone. I love the guided view of Comixology, and actually think it adds a lot to the reading experience on some titles, like Hawkeye. I’m glad I went totally digital, because I’ve still got about ten boxes of comics from five or six years ago that I have no idea what to do with. I aspire to one day have an iPad or Kindle Fire, but I’m pretty happy with the tech I have right now.

SARA

So, what I really want someone to do for their college thesis one year (hopefully soon) is to look at the attention span / GPA changes of college students pre and post the invention of Netflix. Because hotdamn. If there was one thing (besides Glee) that tanked my GPA in college, it was Netflix.

What a wondrous thing. High quality, quick streaming, and thousands upon thousands of movies and TV shows ranging from Oscar Nominated Classics of the 1950s to C-grade Zombie Movies that You Have to be Drunk And Or High to Enjoy.

You can imagine why college might be the best place for Netflix subcription drones to set up shop.

Netflix is awesome. Netflix is the best. Netflix now has all of Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Batman Beyond on its Instant Streaming. Oh my God, am I glad that I no longer have a GPA to tank.

So what about you? What are your media consumption habits? NetFlix? Hardcover books? Digital comics? Tell us how you access the stories we all love.

Q&A # 198: What cancelled comic book do you miss the most?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What cancelled comic book do you miss the most?

ALI

There were a bunch of comics that came to mind when I started thinking about this question: Bryan Q Miller’s Batgirl, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner’s Power Girl, Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain and MI:13, and Kieron Gillen’s S.W.O.R.D. But as much as I love those stories and wish there was more of them, they all got an ending. Maybe it wasn’t the ending that was planned and usually it was a bit rushed, but there was closure. So while I do miss them, I feel like I can always revisit them as complete stories.

The comic I can’t do that with is Thor: The Mighty Avenger (a.k.a. My Boyfriend Thor) by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee. Definitely one of my Top 5 Desert Island comics, My Boyfriend Thor was cancelled after 8 issues with no resolution to the story that was being told–regardless of the “Issue 8 of 8” Marvel put on the cover of the last issue.

CAROLINE

They say that you will always be nostalgic for the comics that were coming out when you first got excited about comics. I have found this is true and it is true even if the year was 2006 and the comics that opened your eyes to the beauties of the Marvel universe included one where a dude with a Messiah complex and a metal arm lived on a shiny island with his best friend the insane mercenary.

Cable & Deadpool we barely knew thee. But seriously, your first 35 issues were amazing.

GABBY

I wish Alias, by Brian Michael Bendis, had continued. Don’t get me wrong; I do think the evolution of Jessica Jones as a character followed its due course by switching titles. I liked The Pulse (because who doesn’t love Spider-Man cameos?). She’s now in The New Avengers, along with her family, and that feels right for where she’s at in her life. But I feel like Alias brought more focus on her, as a person. She deserves to be the main character of her own title, because she struggled to get where she is now, and will do anything for the people she loves. I just want more of her.

And I mean, Alias brought us gems like this. So I would like it back, please and thank you.

SAM

Young Justice. Oh, Young Justice, how I could wax poetic about you forever. I would also accept the Teen Titans lineup pre-reboot, but it’s really Young Justice that does it for me.

Uh, the one from the 90s, not the current/also cancelled TV series Young Justice. I’m talking about the team of Superboy, Impulse, Arrowette, Robin, Secret, and Wonder Girl (and later a few others). Sure, it had its issues (like, er, that whole overly-endowed character thing) and was clearly aimed at teenage boys, but whatever. To this day, it’s the only comic for which I own the entire run, from first issue to last (and specials, and annual, and some tie-ins). I’m not much of a collector, so that’s actually a pretty big deal.

Here’s why I miss it: DC’s current teen titles are just falling totally flat for me. I tried! I did. But none of the rebooted characters feel like the characters I fell in love with. There was a magic about that group, something I connected with immediately and strongly, and I haven’t found that with any of the current Teen Titans, whether in their team book or individually. It’s funny, because I will defend almost every editorial choice made so far with the reboot (or at least be willing to give it a chance), but I just can’t get behind the current teen characters.

So I miss Young Justice. I miss all the characters who have been rebooted into shadows of their former, awesome selves.

At least I’ll always have my box full of comics. I’m probably due for a reread…

So what about you? What cancelled comic book do you miss the most?

Fantastic Fangirls Podcast 2.6: Summer Movie Preview

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On our newest podcast, Sam, Sara and Gabby make Much Ado about a lot of movies that have them Catching Fire and turning Upside Down with excitement as. . .

Okay, I can’t keep this up. Have a picture of the new Superman and Lois Lane:

. . .and enjoy the podcast!

Then come to the comments and tell us what movies you’re most excited to see.

(PS, they’re not all coming out in the summer but I’d already named the file before I realized that.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Whedonverse comics roundup: Willow

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by Gabby

“The Body” is the first episode I’ve ever watched of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I was in the 6th grade. I knew what the show was, having caught a few minutes here of there. But that night, I switched the TV on, and “The Body” was starting. I was transfixed by what I saw on the screen. It was like walking into a room where two people are having a very intense conversation; I knew I shouldn’t be watching, but I couldn’t look away.

I don’t remember much details from that first viewing. I didn’t watch another episode of BtVS until four years ago when I decided to start from the beginning.

The one thing I remember very vividly is Willow not knowing what to wear. I remember thinking: “I would have no idea what to wear if someone close to me died”.

And with that, Willow became my favorite character. My love for her wormed its way into my subconscious from that moment on, ensuring that when I began my BtVS marathon in earnest all my attention would be focused on her.

Through the series, Willow underwent many transformations without losing what I find makes her her: her yearning to always do the right thing.

There’s just one problem: the “right thing” is a highly subjective concept, and Willow, as we have come to know her, is a very self-centered person. The major decisions she has taken in her life have always had a self-serving purpose: tweaking Tara’s memory to make her forget their fights, bringing Buffy back to life because she couldn’t stand to live without her, always searching to absorb magic to make her more powerful… All under the guise of “doing the right thing”.

The last time we saw Willow was in the pages of Angel & Faith. She was leaving Quor’toth in a quest to bring magic back to Earth after the Seed of Wonder’s destruction by Buffy at the end of Buffy: Season 8. This is where her miniseries, that ran from November 2012 to March 2013, picks up.

I’ll proceed a little differently from my usual Whedonverse recap & reviews. I won’t be splitting this piece by issue, but by “parts”, that I feel flow better with the story.

PART 1: Marrack and the first attempt

From Quor’toth, Willow follows a magical trail that brings her to a foreign dimension. She wishes to find a source of magic so potent that, using the scythe, she will be able to shoot some magic into the Earth. In this new realm, she meets Marrack, a human turned demon-like after he got stuck following the end of magic on Earth. Immediately, it is established that Willow and Marrack have two very different objectives: she wants to bring magic back to Earth and share it with everyone, while he wants to seize it for himself, for power and vengeance.

Already, though, Willow feels the need to proclaim that she’s not doing it for herself:

This is something of a running theme in Willow’s life: magic has always been her weakness, and while she craves it, she knows to be weary of it, for Dark Willow is just around the corner. This is something that will become central in this story. We’ll get back to it.

With an incantation, a trail of fire seems to lead to a magical source. By following it, they find a pond with mystical properties, guarded by a Lewis-Carol-esque caterpillar. At first, they think they’ve found the magical reserve their looking for; however, the pond is the “Spring of memory”, and this brings us to the second central theme of the miniseries. Memory is a concept that resonates with me. I’ve always found “moments”, be they in TV shows or in real life, to be very powerful things. When I remember a specific moment, or watch one, the feelings and thoughts I had while experiencing it for the first time flood my mind. I think it’s the closest thing to time travel that we presently have. The caterpillar echoes this sentiment when he says:

“Whatever we do, wherever we go… Our memories are all we really have, you know?”

When Willow drinks from the pond, every defining moment of her life is depicted in a wonderful full page spread, and just seeing those drawings brought tears to my eyes.

The caterpillar encourages the travellers to carry a canteen of this water, and, after fighting some nasty demons, the pair is off to follow the path once more. As they explore, the dichotomy between Marrack and Willow’s philosophies increases, as Willow chastises the demon, saying that if she chooses his path (of disregard for others and roughness), she will get all “black eyed and terrifying”. But yet, the caterpillar has parting words:

“Energy is released by opposing forces. The lights casts thick shadows, and the path of righteousness employs very dark gatekeepers”.

Could it be that Willow needs this Marrack person to achieve her goal? At this point in the story, I thought so. After all, Willow overcame her darkness in Quor’toth and clearly symbolises the light, whereas Marrack embraces the dark.

But it’s about to get a lot more complex than that, as they come upon no other than Aluwyn, the Saga Vasuki.

Part 2: Aluwyn and the second attempt

After finding Aluwyn and some other mystical witches, Marrack and Willow enter the “Witches paradise”, a place surrounding a magical waterfall that house witches from all the realms. Willow is sure that the deep well of magic is here, so she wastes no time and slices through the waterfall with the scythe; but it doesn’t work. Aluwyn tells Willow that for her idea to work, there needs to be magic on the other side, too.

Willow, desperate, slashes at the waterfall until Marrack interrupts by grabbing the scythe. This move angers Aluwyn, and the witches cast out the man from their sacred place.

Now, there’s room for Willow to explore some of the things the witches can offer her to try and bring magic back to Earth. A mirror supposed to bring answers gives her a glimpse of Marrack which confuses her. A sea creature gives her snapshots of the meaning of her life, where she understands that there is good in everything, and evil, too, but the thoughts escape her as she moves away from the creature.

But as Willow involves herself more and more into this magical sisterhood, her memories start to fade. She even says that “parts of her old life are disappearing”, and a witch says that her own old life seems like a life lived by someone else. It is here that Willow faces her biggest challenge yet. She has found what she is looking for: a place with magic. Her selfish nature is brought back to the surface, as she moves further and further away from the goal of her quest. I start to wonder, was she *really* hoping to bring magic back to Earth for an altruistic purpose?

After Aluwyn and Willow spend a “magical” night together, Willow falls asleep dreaming a peaceful dream, only to be awaken by Marrack who’s wormed his way into her dream. There, he gives her the awakening that she needs: he tells her she’s doing what she swore she wouldn’t (abusing magic, though in a different way that she’s used to). He shows her the faces of the people she intended to save:

But it doesn’t have the desired effect, because she wakes up saying that he’s a liar. However, it does plant a seed of doubt.

You see, Willow has to “feel” things. Unlike me, where only thinking about or seeing a moment sends me back to that place, Willow has to experience them with her senses, submerge herself in them.

And that’s what happens when, thirsty, she reaches for her canteen containing the “Spring of memory water”. Here, I become weary of Aluwyn, as she wants to stop Willow from drinking it, after removing her scythe from her. But she drinks it anyway, and that’s when she feels, thus remembers, all of the people she meant to save.

We learn that Aluwyn, trickster god that she is, wanted Willow for herself, as well as giving her what Aluwyn thought she needed. After Willow confronts her, they somewhat make up, and she’s now ready to embark on her final journey. Having now remembered all that she needed to in order to complete her quest, she needs to settle one last thing.

Has she convinced herself that she wants to share the power? Is she fully entrenched in the “light”, and now needs to find the “dark” to bring back magic to Earth? Or is it something else entirely?

Part 3: Willow and the third attempt

So Willow heads off to find Marrack, as he’s the only person so far as motivated as herself to achieve the task they’d set out to do. They cast an incantation and reach a realm full of pure magic.

Willow sits down, ready to absorb all the magic and “become the light”. And this is where it gets interesting. Willow has been trying so hard, ever since the beginning of season 7, to keep Dark Willow at bay, suppressing every impulse she had that reminded her of “that time”, a lot like Angel does with Angelus. But Dark Willow isn’t like Angelus; she doesn’t exist outside of Willow. She *is* Willow, albeit a very dangerous and uncontrollable one. But every time Dark Willow popped up, it’s because Willow was in a very bad emotional or physical place.

Here, in this far removed realm, she finally understands that she embodies both dark and light, and none of them at the same time: she’s just Willow, and all the spectrum of herself that comes with it.

So now that we understand that Willow is the key to bringing magic back to Earth all by herself, what is Marrack’s purpose? If he doesn’t act as Willow’s foil, what is he, exactly?

As it turns out, he’s a physical manifestation of a very bad memory: Rack, the junkie that helped her feed her addiction in season 6. They get at each others throats, and as Rack slices the air with the scythe trying to harm Willow, he unveils a heart entangled in a web of veins and arteries floating in a starlit sky. They fight some more, as the heart sends forth ripples of energy, and Willow uses this to fully embrace the new-found revelation that she’s making great strides at becoming less of a selfish person:

Rack is finally defeated, but by something a little odd that looks like white blood cells. Sure enough, Willow is floating in the “embodiment of magic”. It reflects what she’s beginning to understand:

I love this. I feel like it redeems season 6’s Willow for me, as I now more fully understand the motivations behind her addiction, and her subsequent “dark magic rampage”. I always felt like it was a ploy, a bad metaphor pushed too far for drug addiction. But seen in the light of Willow as a selfish person, that can’t accept the bad parts of herself and has to feel things to really be alive and remember the important facets of her life, it changes my perspective. If anything, the miniseries exposed more sides of the Willow I always thought of as my favorite character without really knowing why, and gave me a reason to love her.

As she herself comes to these realization, the heart gives her a gift; for magic to exist on Earth, it can’t be funneled from somewhere else. It only lives where it is inherent. So the “embodiment of magic” fills Willow’s heart with magic, as she will become the vessel of magic that the Earth needs. As she gazes at our home planet from the stars, she wonders at San Francisco and proclaims that she misses her Scoobies…

Embodiment of magic: You missed them while still among them. Will that remain a problem?
Willow: … No.
Embodiment of Magic: Then the power you sought is within you.
Willow: But I don’t know what to do with it.
Embodiment of Magic: No? Now you can find out.

As Willow walks down the streets of San Francisco, she understands that, as the only person on Earth possessing magic, she needs to share it. And as she walks past a little boy, her magic floats through him, and he starts drawing something beautiful and fantastical where there was a blank slate before.

With the end of this miniseries comes the end of my Whedonverse comics roundup for Buffy: Season 9. If you haven’t been catching up on Angel & Faith or Buffy, you’re missing some real interesting guest stars, beautiful art, a gay self-made slayer and a certain englishman who is almost-resurrected.

What did you think of this miniseries? And what about that cover art, eh? David Mack is a genius.

Q&A #192: What canceled television series do you miss most?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What canceled television series do you miss most?

ANIKA

#SWAG

I know what you’re thinking. Law and Order was on for twenty years. Compared to House (8 seasons) or Fringe (4 1/2 seasons) or Firefly (14 episodes) or Wonderland (8 episodes; only 2 aired)…does it really count as a “canceled” series? But I honestly miss it daily. And specifically this team led by Thomas Wayne and the wonder that was Jack McCoy as DA.

The real issue (as I’ve mentioned) is that it didn’t have a series finale. It hurts me. But at least the series didn’t end on a cliffhanger, like Hellcats which I will NEVER GET OVER –

#crying forever

(And speaking of Aly Michalka, I also miss Phil of the Future)

aka Doctor Who Junior

– or Alien Nation.

I was the same age as Emily Francisco and I completely identified with her. I had a crush on her bad boy big brother. I obsessively shipped Matt and Cathy. I loved this show. I was thirteen years old and I wanted it to be real life.

I watched the post-series TV movies and I read the books (Passing Fancy is my favorite)…I got more closure here than I did with Law and Order. But when I suggested this question for Q&A, Alien Nation was why.

CAROLINE

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not a show that I really expected to enjoy. I’m a huge fan of the original Terminator movie, but increasingly less so of the sequels. The first film is an elegant little time travel paradox (it might not seem that way because of all the explosions, but underneath it really is), and the more you try to add to that, the more you risk wrecking the whole thing. So I didn’t think the franchise was a great candidate for a TV show.

TSCC proved me wrong though. Partly, it did so through an amazing cast — Lena Headey before Game of Thrones, Summer Glau and Thomas Dekker and Brian Austin “When did he get that hot?” Green as her improvised family unit. Antagonists included Richard T. Jones, the super-creepy Garrett Dillahunt and Shirley Manson (?!!). What I enjoyed most about this show, though, were the week-to-week stories. The ongoing story arc of each season was interesting enough, but in a fascinating way, these characters who were so determined to fulfill their mission and ignore the world around them kept getting pulled into the world of people around them. The show never forgot that these other lives were just as real and important as the intrigues surrounding the heroes.

This show was cancelled way before its time, and it also happens to have one of the best cliffhanger endings I’ve ever seen. So much potential, so many stories we’ll never see. I miss this show!

GABBY

Sigh. Veronica Mars, how I love your quick-witted, bashful and seriously ass-kicking self.

I miss this show so much, especially since it did not get the ending it deserved. I remember reading somewhere that the creator had [SPOILER] purposefully ended the show as a season finale, with Veronica walking away in the rain (to this amazing song), so that it would sway the network in giving them an additional season.

Needless to say that never happened, and we never got closure about anything. What happened to Keith, Veronica’s dad? Did he get elected as sheriff, or did he get locked up for tampering with evidence? Who did the marshmallow herself end up with, Piz or Logan? What about Wallace? His last scene wasn’t worthy of the epic goodbye between friends that shouldv’e been.

Ultimately, I’m glad that this show existed. It’s the first show that made me love a bad boy (seriously, I pick Angel over Spike any day – actually, I just pick neither), that presented a loving and hilarious father-daughter duo and a that had a murder storyline that kept me guessing up until the very last scene (Lilly Kane was amazing, wasn’t she?).

I’m due for a re-watch.

(Oh, and in case you’d like to see what a fourth season would have looked like, check these out).

JESSICA

I have mixed feelings when it comes to canceled television shows–on the one hand, it’s annoying (and sometimes heartbreaking) to be deprived of a show that you have become really invested in, but on the other, if a good show ends up running for only one or two seasons, those seasons are usually pretty damn near perfect. After all, only the good die young. Sometimes it’s easier for me to think back wistfully of the one and only really terrific season of a show than to watch a series I love die a slow, painful, hokey, jumping the shark death (thinking about seasons eight and nine of The X-Files still stings).

With this in mind, some canceled television shows I love, like Freaks and Geeks and Firefly, belong in the first category of single breathtaking seasons. I was devastated to see them go, but these are two shows where every episode is great. There are no throw-aways, no “WHY DID THEY DO THAT”s. Their short runs are bittersweet, but beautiful.

Still, this doesn’t mean that some shows aren’t brutally murdered in the prime of their lives, hacked off of the air as fans release blood curdling screams of horror. In this category fall shows like Arrested Development (although I do have high hopes for the Netflix continuation later this year), Pushing Daises, Wonderfalls, and Dead Like Me (if you are a fan and haven’t already, don’t watch the made-for-television movie wrap-up. It’s painful.). These are shows that keep me wondering what happened to their quirky characters, and I will probably never get over any of them being cancelled. Topping this list might be the show Rome, the HBO drama that recreated Ancient Rome in an engaging and original way. I’m still sick over that one. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. I mean, technically I know what happens, because, you know, history, but still. I need to see it on HBO with scantily clad men running around engaging in political intrigue.

MARIE

I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a morbid person, but I definitely have a thing for shows that put a quirky spin on death. That’s why I feel great shows like Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies did not deserve to be buried (see what I did there?) after only two seasons.

Yes, I know that they continued in some capacity with a direct-to-DVD film and a mini-series, but still… there was just so much potential!

SAM

I want to say Doctor Who, because I really wish that the Cartmel Plan had happened and Ace had become a Time Lord. But it’s a good time to be a Whovian, so I’m not going to whine about what could have been, when we’ve got a lot of awesome things that are still happening.

I loved The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, and Dead Like Me, which have been mentioned. I mourn the end of my favorite soap, All My Children (coming back soon in a new format!). But a show that still makes me sad everytime I see it scroll by on Netflix is Earth 2. Oh, Earth 2, you were ahead of your time.

It was Firefly meets the New Caprica arc from Battlestar Galactica. It had a surprisingly deep internal mythology, and a great ragtag cast of characters that built to a pretty strong ensemble led by a female character (pre-dating Star Trek: Voyager by a few months).

Earth-2 brought a lot to the table, from strong female characters, to crazy conspiracies, to cool aliens, it ticked off a lot of my boxes for what I look for in a science fiction show. It’s currently streaming on Netflix (hint hint).

SARA

So, my first answer was the same as Gabby’s. But, she did such a great job describing all my FEELS, I’ll leave it there. Thank you, Gabby. You spoke for all us Martians!

I guess the show I would say that I miss the most is Justice League Unlimited.

Can you look upon all these heros and not flail? I think not. Epic. Even the title sequence was epic. Chills down my spine.

What. A. Show. Funny, smart, heartbreaking. It was not just a cartoon. It was not just for children. It was not just anything but an amazing show.

Baby Justice Leaguers are offended at the implication that their show is for children.

It could have gone on forever, but the way it ended could not have been any more perfect. For me, JLU was an extension of my love of Batman: The Animated Series and of Batman Beyond. Bruce Timm is flaw free in my eyes. To have the most epic animated series in the history of DC end in a way that brought my childhood full circle? I cried. Cried a bunch and, when I rehydrated, cried some more. To see Bruce and Terry connected like that and all because of The Wall? Phenomenal doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Ugh. The Wall. She is so kickass!

(I’m being deliberately vague because I do not want to spoil those of you who have not watched this series and will obviously want to after reading my blurb about it…uh. Right.)

Also, I dare you to find a more terrifying villain than Joker in JLU. Freaking nuts doesn’t say enough.

So, as much as I would welcome (read: jump up and down screaming like a banshee) more JLU, it had the best send-off I could ever imagine a beloved show getting.

So what about you? What canceled television series do you miss most?

Q&A #191: What comic do you, personally, want to be a character in?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What comic do you, personally, want to be a character in?

ALI

Phonogram. If only for the selfish reason that I will never be as cool as everyone in the Phonoverse. Actually, I kind of take that back. Most of the characters in Phonogram are flawed and emotionally dented and bruised. But they look so freaking cool. I mean, how could you NOT want your life to be like this?

AND there’s the whole music is magic thing, which I really dig. What I dig even more is that you can kind of lean how to be a Phonomancer. You wouldn’t be as powerful as those born into it, but you can learn a bit to have fun.

But who am I kidding. If I were ever going to be in a comic book I’d want to be a superhero. Not anything huge, a third or fourth string Avenger or X-Men. Just this girl who lives in Brooklyn and uses her telekinesis to help people. So… basically I want to be in Hawkeye.

I’d look really damn cool in that comic too.

GABBY

Since Marie swiped my default answer (it’s a pretty great answer, Marie), I’m forced to really think about it. And something just keeps coming back: I’d like to be working in the library of Dream’s castle, “The Dreaming”.

What a wonderfully clever idea; a library made of books we’ve never written. I’d be Lucien’s assistant, working in the ever-changing stacks of books, reading excerpts of people’s dream-novels.

I think I’d be willing to weather Dream’s mood swings and tantrums for that job.

MARIE

I’d most likely would want to be a character in Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse comics. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an extremely influential series for me, so to have a chance to play around in that sandbox as a new Slayer would be pretty rad.

Radness.

SARA

I’ve spent most of my comic-fandom life in the Batman universe, so Batfamily here I come! But, seriously, I live my life with a lot of fictional characters leading the way, forging my path, but I believe the top two influences have to be Hermione Granger and Barbara Gordon.

And what do these lovely, other-worldly ladies have in common? Um, they are smart, kick-ass, brazen, in your face, brave, compassionate, and live in a perpetual boy’s club without self-combusting.

I want to BE them.

SO, if I were to be in any comic, I would love to be in Batman Beyond and play Batgirl of the future to Terry McGinnis’ Batman. Max and I would spend hours making fun of him and Bruce would have to take up meditation again to prevent himself from killing me.

It would be AWESOME.

So what about you? What comic do you, personally, want to be a character in?

Lupercalia!

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Hello all! Today’s post is something we cooked up in honor of Lupercalia, the ancient Roman festival traditionally celebrated on the 15th of the kalends of March. For those in the audience not fluent in the calendars of ancient civilizations (how could you not be?), that means February 15th!

Now, unless you are/were a classics major or spent a good deal of time in the Remus Lupin section of the Harry Potter fandom, this holiday probably means nothing to you. Well, for the sake of clarification (and for re-living my (Sara’s) glory days in the Remus Lupin section of the Harry Potter fandom), Lupercalia is a fertility festival primarily and an homage to Lupa, the she-wolf that suckled Remus and Romulus, founders of Rome.

The ritual involves scantily dressed men running through the hills of Rome, where the women congregate in hopes of being smacked by the goat hides that the scantily dressed men are waving around. This was to guarantee fertility and prosperity.

an artist's rendition of a Lupercalia ceremony

I know what you’re all thinking. How could we have let this tradition die out?!

Unless we didn’t let it die out and there is a small faction of pagan Roman enthusiasts that recreate this ritual in the West Village every year.

Hey, every time I go to the West Village, there are scantily dressed men running around beating people with cloth.

Although, they are mostly hitting other men and the cloth isn’t so much cloth as it is vegan leather bondage whips. And, come to think of it, fertility really isn’t the goal here, so it’s possible that we really did let Lupercalia die out. Endless sad face.

I digress. The purpose of this post (other than educating you on the coolest of the cool ancient Roman festivals) is to pay tribute to the wolves in our fandom lives! Think about it! How many amazing wolves are lurking around Tumblr and Livejournal? Check out our choices for top wolves in fandom below:

SARA

Remus Lupin (Harry Potter)

a still of Remus Lupin as portrayed by David Thewlis

The first and truest of my werewolf loves. When I was in the Harry Potter fandom (I use the past tense in a mostly ironic sense as you can’t really leave the Harry Potter fandom. Ever.), I spent most of my time in the Marauder era, obsessively thinking up ways the Marauders would traumatize the school and themselves in pursuit of a good laugh. My favorite of the foursome was Remus. I’ve always been one to feel a kinship (or a burning adolescent crush) for amazing teachers and Remus fit that bill.

After one blatantly evil, murderous Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and another more covert evil and vain Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Remus Lupin was a breath of fresh air. He actually taught Harry things. He carried chocolate. He was one-fourth of the most ingenious pranking group Hogwarts had ever seen until the Weasley twins.

I was in love.

That and I was the Moony of my Marauder pranking group in middle/high school. We were very much alike, at least as far as my headcanon as to his personality in his school days.

Either way, Remus Lupin was my introduction into the world of werewolves and I have had a soft spot for them ever since.

Jacob Black (Twilight)

a still of Jacob Black as portrayed by Taylor Lautner (shirtless)

Before anyone gets into a snit, I know Jacob isn’t a werewolf. He’s a shape-shifter who shifts into a wolf. Because we are paying tribute to the wolves in our fandom lives, he makes the list.

And he certainly brings a lot of, um, assets to the list, doesn’t he? I am of course speaking of the amazing way his CGI was handled in the Twilight movies.

If there was one problem with the third Harry Potter movie that I could have fixed, it would have been the werewolf CGI. Hermione even says in the book that the only difference between a werewolf and real wolf is a shorter tail and a longer snout. I’m pretty sure she would have mentioned the alikeness to a yeti had there been one.

So, as much as it pains me to say, Twilight one-upped the Harry Potter movies in one respect. Their wolves are amazing.

Focusing more on Jacob, I really do enjoy his character for the most part. He’s sarcastic and loyal and warm and protective. All in all, very lupine.

Scott McCall (Teen Wolf)

a promotional image of Scott McCall as portrayed by Tyler Posey

My newest (and rather deep) obsession comes in the form of Teen Wolf, which I picked as my favorite TV show of the moment in a Q&A a couple of weeks back.

I LOVE what they’ve done with the werewolf mythos in this world. More so than Harry Potter and Twilight, Teen Wolf—which has the luxury of focusing on the werewolf supernatural, versus sharing time with vampires and other magic folk—dives into a society that co-exists mostly parallel with run-of-the-mill human lives. Of course, parallel lines never met Peter Hale or Kate Argent, so the show begins when these worlds collide and an ordinary, asthmatic teenager gets bitten and becomes, surprise surprise, a teen wolf.

Fun, huh?

Scott McCall was just taking an innocent stroll through the woods, searching for half of a dead body with his best fri—wait, you guys don’t do that with your best friends? Huh.

Anyway. Scott gets dragged out into some really creepy woods by his best friend and partner in crime in the middle of the night and things happen and he gets bitten by a werewolf. So begins a journey of self-discovery, murder, mayhem, and really attractive shirtless dudes.

No, but seriously. This show is on MTV. There are a lot of shirtless dudes. I’m pretty sure Derek only owns three shirts, because that is the only way he could spend so much time shirtless.

In this show, we get a look at hierarchical structures in a werewolf pack, the trials and tribulations of bitten and born wolves, and—the most cool—how wolves are targeted by humans out to destroy them under the guise of something called the Code.

Scott, who is not always the center of fandom attention, is in fact the main character (don’t let Tumblr tell you otherwise). It took me a while to warm up to him because his relationship drama in season one often took away from the action of the show and I got annoyed pretty quickly. But, thankfully, I came to my senses and learned to love Scott. Who is another one of my precious baby boys.

Well, that devolved rapidly.

He is smart (emotionally), adorable, caring, protective, and fiercely loyal. A+ character.

GABBY

Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

a still of Oz as portrayed by Seth Green (in a rubber wolf mask)

“Who is that girl?”

I must say, though I loved Willow and Tara together, Willow and Oz were my favorite TV couple while I was watching Buffy. I feel like they brought out the best in each other (until they didn’t), and always thought everyone should aspire to be a little more like Oz: aloof, cool, with a little bit of an ironic edge.

I think my favorite thing about him was the matter of fact way in which he turned into a werewolf. Basically, he tickled his cousin, who in turn bit him (apparently he wasn’t fond of tickling!). When Oz wakes up naked in the forest, he calls up his aunt, and asks her if the boy is a werewolf. She says yes, and that’s that. No big reveal, no secrets. Oz has become, as matter-of-factly as his personality, a werewolf. Throughout the rest of his run on the show, Oz represented, to me, the idealized version of a teenager: playing in a band, popular in an underground way, a good friend, and a werewolf, to boot. I wished with all my heart that I would be friends with Oz.

That’s why the way in which he departed from the show made no sense to me; it felt completely out of character. For him to succumb to the “animalistic envies” of his wolf through Veruca felt shallow and undeserving towards the guy who had always been “cool” in the face of danger. I loved the fact that he came back in “New Moon Rising” as I felt more closure with this next-to last appearance. The icing on the Oz cake was the scooby gang’s visit in Tibet in Buffy: Season 8: I loved reading about his new life there, with werewolf wife and son, Bayarmaa and Kelden. A fitting end to a wonderful character; I will always love you, Daniel “Oz” Osbourne.

Tyler Lockwood (The Vampire Diaries)

a picture of Michael Trevino, TVD's Tyler Lockwood

If Oz’ transformation into a werewolf was completely underrated, the same cannot be said of Tyler Lockwood’s. I forget there was ever a before-werewolf Tyler; a mean jock who everyone called a “dick”. The second season was Tyler’s time to shine, though, and in “Masquerade”, as he breaks a girl’s neck, we see in his wolf eyes that the curse of the moon is triggered. Having no idea what’s about to happen to him, he watches a video that his uncle made of his own first transformation. We see it: it looks horrible AND it lasts more than 5 hours. Poor Tyler is scared out of his wits, and who wouldn’t be?

I think out of all the werewolves, his transformation was the most traumatic and well-done. The pace of his whole ordeal is optimal; in five episodes, we go from the trigger of the curse to the first transformation. The manner of his werewolf-ness is entrenched in the mythology of the show, too, and very elaborate. Not only did he have to kill a human to trigger the curse, but he has to spend hours in agony, chained up, every time a full moon comes around. Michael Trevino was amazing in “By the Light of the Moon”, as his body contorted and he was screaming out in pain to Caroline to “make it stop”. I will never forget watching that episode and gripping my pillow so tight my knuckles turned white.

Tyler has gone through many transformations since that first time in the Lockwood cellar; no longer only a werewolf, he’s the last hybrid standing (one of Klaus’ pets, half-werewolf, half-vampire), and apart from Caroline, Tyler has nothing left to lose. I’m excited to see what’s coming up next for his character.

SAM

Dyson (Lost Girl)

a picture of Dyson as portrayed by Kris Holden-Reid

Listen, I’m team Doccubus. I want to get that out of the way immediately, so nobody doubts my loyalties (or sensibilities). But any list of werewolves in pop culture needs to include Detective Wolfy McBrooderfae. He’s, like, a thousand years old, he can only really love once in his entire lifetime, and he gave that up for Bo. Aw. I mean, I guess. He’s no Hot Pants. But he’s the Wolf, and that’s pretty cool too.

There are definitely things I like about Dyson. He’s got awesome vests. The rest of his clothes are pretty cool, too. I like his beard and his Chris Martin hair. Beyond the superficial, I like his loyalty, which seems to be the central pillar of his character. Even when he has a crisis of… self, I guess (I imagine giving up your only chance to feel love will do that to you), he can’t stay away from the fight for long. He’s a good guy through and through, and he’ll fight fang and claw for his friends.

And he seems to take his shirt off a lot. If that’s your kind of thing.

Alcide Herveaux (True Blood)

a still of Alcide as portrayed by Joe Manganiello

Oh Alcide. I love Alcide. I’ve read the Sookie Stackhouse books (well, the first 6 or 7), but book-Alcide never made much of an impression on me. I’m not sure what it is about the television version of Alcide that works so much for me. Maybe it’s his quiet intensity that can build to a pretty epic eruption of passion. Or the fact that he’s a billion feet tall (I met Joe Manganiello at Dragon*Con last fall, and he’s really a billion feet tall). Or that his thing with Sookie ran its course with relatively little drama. Yeah, that helps.

I really loved his storyline this past season on True Blood, when he had a crisis of wolfdom, but stepped up and became leader of his own pack. He dealt with daddy issues, vampire issues, girlfriend issues and political issues, and he he never lost that slow burn intensity that makes him so appealing. I don’t say this about a lot of dudes, but I totally get why people find him attractive. He’s loyal (trend!), strong, and tortured. Basically everything a good wolf in fiction should be, right?

ANIKA

Rahne Sinclair (X-Men)

a picture of Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane in New Mutants

Rahne is one of the Marvel mutants whose been around forever but always on the sidelines. She’s on the fringe teams like New Mutants and X-Factor and the Hellions. Like pretty much every X-person she had a traumatic childhood that culminated in becoming a freak with the onset of puberty. In Rahne’s case she’s a lycanthrope. But she’s more like Jacob than a traditional werewolf because she can control her transformation, and retains her intelligence in wolf form. Rahne can also maintain a transitional part-wolf, part-human form.

Like most werewolves (and most mutants), Rahne often struggles with self-loathing. She’s naturally shy and compassionate. Sweet. But she has a strong temper (she’s a redheaded Scot) and turns into a wild animal. Most of her stories revolve around trying to blend these two sides into a cohesive person she is comfortable being…while supervillains, unrequited crushes, angry mobs, and the occasional war on and/or between mutants explode around her.

You know. The usual.

The X-Men are often touted as an allegory for disenfranchised minority groups and Wolfsbane fits right into that idea. She wants to be herself and have that be okay. Be accepted and supported and respected. And sometimes, when she’s not, it makes her so mad she howls and claws and loses her mind a little bit. And the secret is, that’s okay, too.

Red (Once Upon a Time)

a still of Red as portrayed by Meghan Ory

Ruby Lucas snuck up on me. At the beginning of Once Upon a Time she was shiniest background character, dressed in tiny tops and tinier skirts, with bright red lips and boots and nary a hood in sight. When she started coming out of the background I liked her (Meghan Ory is great, by the way, and has chemistry with literally everyone), but I didn’t love her. I would root for her but I didn’t relate to her. Even when her secret was revealed — Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf are one and the same — I was only mildly interested. I’m not a lover of werewolves or monster within stories. Those aren’t my stories, the ones I am drawn to and relate to and tell over and over.

But in the second season, something changed. One, Ruby met up with Belle and their retelling of Beauty and the Beast is about four hundred million times more interesting to me than Belle’s with Rumplestiltskin (even if it remains a completely platonic friendship). Two, they started to play more with Ruby’s wolf side. She tracks, she snarls, she makes little quips about the situation. She’s traded her red minis for grey furs. She’s becoming comfortable with the wolf, and that is leading to being completely herself instead of two opposing sides. And that leads to three, she’s better off, and happier, in Storybrooke than she was in the Enchanted Forest and she knows it. To me, that is the most interesting place for a character to be — not yet there but self-aware .

The story of Little Red Riding Hood has always been a metaphor for growing up: walking bravely but naively into the dark forest, taking a few wrong turns and trusting a few bad people, and learning from the experience. Ruby’s current story has brought her to a new but equally unknown and dangerous place but she’s gained a few tricks and she’s still brave. She’s not afraid of the big bad wolves; she’s ready to run with them.

The Starks of Winterfell (Game of Thrones)

a still of Robb Stark, as portrayed by Richard Madden, with wolf pups

The Starks would be content left alone in their border kingdom so far North “winter” is synonymous with “power”. Left alone, Ned would be alive, Sansa would be free, Bran would be whole. Life would be simpler. But wolves do not live a simple life. They roam. They howl at the light. And they protect the pack, whatever it takes.

Wolves develop close relationships and strong social bonds. They often demonstrate deep affection for their family and may even sacrifice themselves to protect the family unit. (Defenders)

Ned defined his pack to include the King and the Kingdom — Robb did the same when he accepted the title “King of the North”. Catelyn defines it as her blood, an imagined power Sansa clings to in her exile. Young Bran and Rickon understand that home is not their castle but the land they roam and the family they run with. Clever Arya builds a pack wherever she goes, with whoever is there. And though denied the birthright, Jon Snow is the most wolflike of all.

As a pack they share: pride, resilience, and a generosity of spirit that the rest of the realm would rather burn to the ground. But the wolves will lay down their lives to defend it.

Q&A 190: Valentine’s Day! What’s your favorite comic book Valentine moment? Invent one, if none exist!

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Valentine’s Day! What’s your favorite comic book Valentine moment? Invent one, if none exist!

ANIKA

Beware, I’m going to be gushy. I (Heart) Marvel #1 Starring Spider-Man and Mary Jane. ♥ ♥ ♥ Valentine’s Day is coming up and our Peter doesn’t know what to get his wife. She always gets him exactly the right gift and he wants to do the same for her, just this once. Now this comic includes so many wonderful moments and touches — Peter getting a cookie out of the Iron Man cookie jar while Aunt May and Jarvis do dishes together; MJ, Tony, Luke and Steve watching the ball game; Spidey playing pranks on Johnny Storm; Luke Cage being goofy cute about his Jessica; and Tony’s Cheezit obsession for example. But the best moment, the reason I get all gushy and girly about this silly little side-story comic is when Peter gives Mary Jane her gift:

His original web-shooters, modified by Tony Stark for Spider-Wife. I ADORE this story right down to the little pink hearts that fly up to the moon while our couple … on the roof.

GABBY

It may sound weird, but for me, celebrating Valentine’s Day was a family affair. I remember my parents used to invite their one single friend (who is like an uncle to me) to have brunch on V-Day. I’d spend the entire previous day with my mom in the kitchen, the one time a year we would bake together (my mom hates baking). In the morning I would wake up to a white-draped table sprinkled with red, heart-shaped confetti and stocked with delicious food. We’d spend the day exchanging chocolate boxes and I remember my mother telling me that Valentine’s Day was a day to tell everyone in your life that you loved them.

Therefore, I would love to see Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and baby Dany, my favorite comic family, celebrating Valentine’s Day together. It could be at brunch, but it could also be a day at the park, or any other quiet moment where they would tell each other that they appreciate the other’s presence and love. I think that would be very nice.

SAM

As a perpetually single anti-capitalist who is a member of a an oppressed and underrepresented sexual minority, I am not the biggest fan of the heterocentric, couplecentric, commercialized holiday that is Valentine’s Day. But in the past few years I’ve learned that the best way to pass my time on that day – because, like Christmas, it’s impossible to ignore now – is to spend it with a person or people whom I platonically love.

I’m not sure if that’s ever happened in comics. It’s entirely possible. There are some really fantastic friendships in the realm of comics, and I would read about any of them spending a platonic Valentine’s day together. The team of Young Justice meets up in Central Park during the afternoon and plays baseball together again, this time for fun, and there’s no drama (except for when Bart steals home). Ollie Queen and Hal Jordan go fishing, even if neither of them like to fish, to just hang out and drink some beers together and catch up. Karen Starr and Helena Wayne fly to a remote island in the pacific and sip fruity drinks and sun tan (for as long as Helena can sit still). Carol Danvers and Jess Jones-Cage go to a dinner and a movie (for as long as Carol can sit still).

So platonic love. I think it transcends your run of the mill friendship. There’s a lot of platonic love in comics, which makes sense considering they constantly rely on each other for their lives, but these are a few of my favorites.

So what about you? Valentine’s Day! What’s your favorite comic book Valentine moment? Invent one, if none exist!

Q&A #189: What is a favorite sci-fi film?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What is a favorite sci-fi film?

GABBY

I’m not a movie person; I’m a TV person. If I do watch movies, they are most likely fantasy films or independent dramas/rom coms. However, I watched Super 8 a couple of months ago.

the movie poster of Super 8

Let’s back track. One of my biggest movie disappointment happened when, at 13 years of age, I went to see Dreamcatcher in the theaters. I remember feeling so cheated that I wandered into a sci fi film without knowing it (hey, I had little to no idea who Stephen King was; I still thought Our Lady Peace was a band I had “discovered”). Ever since, I have been wary of monster-like alien films posing as supernatural thrillers (like The Cave, for instance). This is all to say that I had no idea I was wandering into the exact same trap with Super 8:

a still from the film Super 8

And you know what? I LOVED this movie. From the kids, to the adults, to the big honking alien, everything about this film breathes of the little details that make us human. I was so surprised when, at the end of the movie, I felt water on my cheeks. The actors portraying those kids? Do they ever know how to do their jobs!

a still from the film Super 8

Also, I didn’t really care at the time because I hadn’t watched Friday Night Lights yet, but squee! Kyle Chandler!

(PS: To borrow Sam’s line: Watch. Friday. Night. Lights.)

JESSICA

If we’re being honest, I probably don’t necessarily have just one “favorite” Sci-Fi film…there are so many good ones! As a cop-out I will go with my most recent favorite is the 2009 incarnation of Star Trek. I watched The Next Generation with my parents in the nineties, and was mostly interested in the new movie out of nostalgia. When I saw it I was totally blown away. That film is pure awesome, plus Spock is terribly good looking (cue Nerfherder song). It brought all of the sci-fi elements that were interesting about the original Star Trek and combined them with 21st-century special effects. Beautiful.

Plus it kicked off a two-week period where I watched every single episode of the original series. Best TV binge ever.

MARIE

One of my absolute favorites is Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. It’s a silent era piece that tends to get a lot of attention from film buffs, but on it’s own I think it’s one of the few movies out there that deserves the compliment of being “ahead of its time.” Taking place in a futuristic dystopian society with broad-sweeping themes on class and human nature, this one will always be a winner for me.

the poster for Metropolis

If I’m in the mood for something fun and light-hearted, however, my go-to movie is Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. Mostly because Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman are awesome.

the poster for The Fifth Element

SAM

Well, scifi is my favorite genre of everything ever. And Tron is my favorite film of all time, so I guess it’s also my favorite scifi film of all time too, right? Right!

I have a huge list of scifi movies I love, from The Fifth Element to Blade Runner to The Matrix to eXistenZ to Moon to Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my favorite subgenres is the “soft” scifi that relies on only a teeny scifi element, like a machine that can erase memories, but is otherwise a “standard” story). I love post apocalyptic fiction, which generally has some scifi aspect to it. I love outer space stories (I started watching Star Trek in the womb). I love the idea of evolving technology and the questions it poses to our inherent humanity. So yeah, scifi is my favorite genre.

But anyway, Tron. It’s hard for me to introduce people to Tron. It’s a long movie, and it’s really foreign to the sensibilities of the modern movie goer. It came out in 1982, it pioneered a lot of CGI, and it influenced (eventually) the creation of Pixar. It was so revolutionary that it wasn’t allowed to be nominated for an Oscar for special effects because computers were considered “cheating”.

It’s a movie about a guy (Jeff Bridges!) who’s really good at video games – making them and playing them – who gets sucked into the digital world of the computer at his old office. To get out he has to defeat the big scary Master Control Program. Generally by playing video games. There’s CGI, rotoscoping, cool chases (lightcycles!), a teeny bit of romance, Bruce Boxleitner, original songs by Journey, and an amazing original score by Wendy Carlos.

an image of the film Tron

If all you know about Tron is Tron: Legacy, the sort-of-sequel (IMO it’s more like what Abrams’ Star Trek was, a quasi-reboot with links to the original), or the pretty-decent cartoon Tron: Uprising, give the original a chance. Especially if you already like the world of the newer stories. Tron is a classic, and you can see how it influenced the last thirty years of science fiction.

And if you ever find yourself in an old school arcade, try out the tie-in arcade game.

So what about you? What is a favorite sci-fi film?