The Smarmy Carny

NBC has released the first 10 minutes of the My Name is Earl season 2 premiere as a treat to the online community.

As far as Earl goes, I've seen better scenes than these, but the plot for the episode is set up, and I'm guessing that the remainder of the episode will ramp up the fun factor.

NBC has been catering to the online community, it seems. Between seasons, NBC.com hosted The Office: The Accountants webisodes that center on Kevin, Angela, and Oscar. The ten webisodes covered a story arc involving a missing $3,000 and their attempts to find out who might have stolen the money.

Thanks to BBC America, I'm now watching the British series Life on Mars.

The first season consists of eight episodes, though BBCA has only shown three thus far. The first three episodes are engaging, and the plot is interesting:

Sam Tyler, a cool, sharp young detective, is working hard to keep the streets of 21st century Manchester safe from crime. But his world is turned upside down when the hunt for a serial killer becomes a personal vendetta after Maya, his girlfriend and colleague, goes missing. Desperately afraid she has been kidnapped by the killer, he sets out to find her, only to become involved in a near-fatal car accident. When he wakes, he finds himself in a different era — 1973. Is this reality, madness or a dream? Sam struggles to understand what is happening to him.

Disoriented and traumatized, 21st century Sam is completely bewildered by his new environment. As all attempts to return to his own time fail, Sam falls back on what he knows best — his job. Each episode features a different case, some of the toughest Sam has ever tried to solve — partly because of what seems like archaic police procedure. This is a world without cell phones, where cops rely on paperwork and memory instead of computers, there's no DNA profiling and what forensics do exist take two weeks to process.

Furthermore, his 1973 colleagues are insensitive, unreconstructed cops who regularly intimidate witnesses and are happy to nail suspects irrespective of whether they have evidence. Sam's new boss is hard-nosed Gene Hunt, the antithesis of everything Sam believes in. He gets results by trusting his gut instinct and, all too often, sheer brute force.

In the first episode, it becomes clear to Sam that the killer who is holding Maya in 2006 started his killing spree here and now in the early '70s. Could catching the perpetrator be Sam's key to returning to the future?

Get a quick glimpse of Life on Mars over at BBCA's website.

David E. Kelley is working on an American version of the series, set to premiere in fall of 2007. This has me almost as nervous as when I first heard about the American version of The Office, but that series turned out fine. I'm quite certain that the British version wouldn't do too well in the American mainstream, but I trust David E. Kelley to write it well for the American audience. Still, an American version will have to take care to recreate the not-so-nostalgic nostalgia of the 70s like the original series. Hopefully it won't be full of kitschy That 70s Show moments.

Ty Veculus

This Thursday, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? premieres on SciFi.

As with any new show, there's no way to tell how good it will be, but the video clips I have seen thus far look promising. One of the big draws to the show is that it features Stan Lee, who will apparently judge the contest and write a comic book based on the winning character.

I have a feeling that geeks will enjoy this show a bit more than the standard population, and that's most likely why it's on SciFi and not Fox or Bravo. Still, anyone who enjoys watching people dress up like jerks should derive some entertainment from the show.

Here's the official blurb on Who Wants to Be a Superhero?:

From all walks of life have come 11 very different people, all out to prove to legendary comic-book creator Stan Lee that they have what it takes to be a true superhero. But as they're about to learn, it takes more than a sharp costume and cool powers to be a hero — because for a true superhero, it's what kind of person you are that counts the most….

I hope that the premiere will show the audition with a man blowing up a large balloon-type device, getting inside it, sticking just his head out of the opening, and hopping around the stage. Good times. Still, not all that apply get on the show. Here's a little well-advertised spoiler: Only 11 contestants are chosen, and their superhero names are:

• Cell Phone Girl
• Fat Momma
• Major Victory
• Levity
• Feedback
• Monkey Woman
• The Iron Enforcer
• Nitro G
• Ty Veculus
• Lemuria
• Creature

I don't know if we've really got the next Fantastic Four hiding in this bunch, but based on the auditions, I wouldn't hold your breath for Ben Grimm. Spider-Man taught us that with great power comes great responsibility. I think that this show might teach us that with great fame comes great dramatic geekage.

The Charlie Action Figure

Mcfarlane Toys announced that they will be making Lost action figures, currently due out in November 2006. The company plans on releasing a few characters at a time in multiple series, including deceased characters. Each character will also come with a small prop (e.g. Kate comes with the toy plane).

As you can see here, a picture of the Charlie figurine has been released. The other characters slated for this first series are Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Shannon. And yes, that's a bikini-clad Shannon, not a bloody-hole-in-torso Shannon.

If you purchase the deluxe boxed sets, you will also get dioramas of appropriate Lost sets so the geekiest of you can recreate scenes from the show.

Each of the figures will say various phrases (e.g. Hurley yelling, "The numbers are BAD!!!")

You can currently pre-order the figures at AllStarFigures.com at a price based on early estimations. The eventual price might be higher or lower, but you can lock in on the AllStarFigures price right now.

As if that weren't enough, Ubisoft (Myst, Resident Evil, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic, Splinter Cell, and a game based on CSI) is working on an interactive video game slated for a 2007 release. Don't get your hopes up . . . that's going to be late 2007, most likely. The game should support game console and PC platforms.

Allow me to begin by giving you some viewing advice for this week's Lost episode: Watch the commercials! Normally, I advise everyone to get a DVR (or Tivo, if that's your thing) and quickly skip past the silly commercials. This week on Wednesday night is different, though. A special game will be launched during the show (including commercials) on the May 3 airing of Lost. (The Brits will see it on May 2 when the episode airs there.)

Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced on The Official Lost Podcast that the show would be launching an interactive internet-based game this month. In fact, the Lost Experience Alternate Reality Game will primarily take place online, but will also incorporate other forms of media, too. For instance, the first clue is in the form of a toll-free phone number.

The game is not dependent on the current story-lines of Lost and will extend from Season 1 through portions of Season 3. The game should continue through the summer, so we Lost addicts will have something to discover during the horrendous off-season. Though the story played out in the game is not dependent on the television show's plot, it is related to the series through characters and plots. We know that the game will stay true to the show because Lindelof and Cuse are involved closely with the project.

So, keep a sharp eye out on Wednesday! We should be learning plenty more about the Lost mythology soon!

Update: Call 877-HANSORG and also check out thehansofoundation.org for the first sets of clues!

I'll admit it: The Loop is not for everyone. It's not the best show around, and it's not the funniest. Still, it's one fun show.

If you haven't seen the show yet, The Loop follows Sam, the youngest executive at the TransAlliance corporate HQ in Chicago. Each episode, Sam tries miserably to balance the demands of an executive job with the demands of his three party-oriented roommates.

The formula for the show is clear: Every episode, Sam finds a conflict between his work and social lives. Without fail, his social activities bring about some horrible occurence in his work life, but somehow, show by show, Sam manages to use the disadvantages to his advantage.

One thing that's fun to look for are the phrases that Sam utters when he gets upset, such as "Crab nabbers!" Sam's boss Russ (played by Philip Baker Hall, a Paul Thomas Anderson regular) also frequently uses eccentric phrases that tend to be more old-school, controversial, and esoteric.

Because the show is focused on the Gen-Y'ers, it is music-driven. It's not at the level of an MTV Films movie, but Fox does publish a list of the tracks from each episode.

The Swan

After my Lost April Fools' Joke, I figured that I should post something worthwhile about Lost instead.

As usual, Sledgeweb posted a detailed map with each section typed overtop the previously illegible writing. It's certainly worth a closer look, considering the map mentions polar bear gene therapy, another hatch called "The Flame," and a treatment for disease.

Entertainment Weekly also grabs the map and details five of the phrases listed on the map with some very brief commentary.

We learned (again) that Locke's father continues his little scams or cons on his son. In fact, I'm still not convinced that Helen isn't part of Locke's dad's long con. That said, Locke's father is a con man . . . anyone else on the island looking for a con man?

Tomorrow's episode is, happily, Hurley-centric. We should see more of Hurley in the psychiatric institution, and maybe we'll get a chance to see Locke's mother in there as well this time. Having a Hurley-centric episode now is especially fun because Hurley complained about being out of the loop in the last episode. Be careful what you wish for . . .