The Blogboard Jungle

Photo: CBS It's the end of the year, it's cold, and you may be going out to celebrate or stay home. Regardless of how you celebrate there will be a point where there is nothing to do but watch TV. For years broadcasts of TV shows air on New Year's eve and New Year's day to fill your recovery time to get ready for a new year. What will you binge on? The Twilight Zone will always be number one here but, are there any recommendations for a new binge?  Maybe to take a colorized break?  Please comment below and Have a Happy New Year!

Photo from Official Web-site . Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger retired from politics he has made a slow transition back to the action film genre . His first film back as an older action guy worked well for him, Sabotage does the same in putting him in a role that not only compliments his age but sells his character well. This is an action film with a little too much testosterone written into it but keeps you interested most of the time. Schwarzenegger plays Breacher, experienced leader of elite DEA crew. The film opens with a raid in which legendary DEA agent Breacher, played by Schwarzenegger leads his crew of elite agents in taking down a drug cartel.  While doing so, they decide to steal some of the drug dealers drug money and hide some at the site of the mission to claim later. However, when they return to get the hidden money it's gone.  That begins the films premise of mistrust and betrayal with them suspecting each other and trying to find out who is trying...

Everyone is taking a break while we get through the holidays. Both Arrow and Constantine are on hiatus until they return next month and what better way to ensure your viewers return? Leave your protagonists on the brink of death. No one is faulting them for their formula because it will most surely work. Photo from Official CW Arrow Facebook page. On Arrow we find out Malcolm Merlin had more than just paternal motivations for taking and Thea and training her. He manages to drug her into a highly suggestive state and from the evidence he produced to Oliver, it looks like she killed Black Canary. In order to save his lying sister from the League of Shadows Oliver takes her place and confesses to the crime in order to save Thea.  The cost is a duel between him and the League's leader, Ra's Al Ghul. If you know anything about Ra's, read up on Batman's list of villains.  Alternatively you can watch Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight   trilogy and know that he i...

Photo from official Facebook page The mid-season finale of The Flash aired last Tuesday night and while we finally have an idea of who killed Barry's mother, we didn't get much else.  Barry told Iris how he finally feels and we got introduced to Firestorm, Caitlin's boyfriend who perished when the particle accelerator failed. The episode took a long time to get to where fans wanted to be.  We were introduced to the "man in yellow" but still don't know who he is or why he was being drawn to tachyons (Any Watchmen fans out there?).  Firestorm, formerly Ronnie Raymond was introduced because he was stalking Caitlin for no reason whatsoever.  For this show, let's be honest.  Who needs a reason for another character from the DC Universe to be introduced. Reverse Flash (Yellow suit flash) lets Barry know, they have a destiny and no matter when they meet he will always kill The Flash. They fight and as he is about to finish Barry, Firestorm saves him an...

Photo from Climate.gov Christmas is coming soon and you either love it or hate it.  This site obviously favors another time of year but if you are into the holidays you probably want the "white Christmas" the popular song says people dream of. If you are walking around, wondering, hoping and dreaming of one you can look up you chances at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's web site, better known as NOAA . The data they have there is only from 1981-2010 which are "the latest three-decade averages of several climatological measurements", according to the NOAA.  In the northeast, we had an average of a snow storm every week last year so being three years off may be a concern for the later winter months. If you're in the crowd that does not care for a "White Christmas", then this may be useful to you too.  It will help you stock up on food, and get your  +Netflix  queue in order to watch some good movies or binge watch some shows...

Photo from Fox.com Gracepoint , the Fox version of Broadchurch was finished up lat night.  While it was airing, I decided to rent Broadchurch and watch all of them while I was Gracepoint to compare the two.  I also wanted to see what was different and what stayed the same.  I'll try not to add any spoilers so as not to ruin either version for anyone. What was different?  The obvious differences were the accents, actors, and settings.  Story wise everything was the same, Danny Solano (in Gracepoint the family's last name was different) was murdered and his body was found on the beach.  Tennant played the same version of himself minus the Scottish accent, he did good doing the grisliness if an American detective role. Another difference, probably because of the players but certain characters came off as more creepy in  Gracepoint  , most notably Susan Wright.  The chain smoking old lady with the dog is way more cre...

Photo from NBC.com Last Friday's episode of Constantine was a good build up to the mid-season finale and the bigger picture of the show.   Blessed Are The Dammed had Constantine and Zed (yeah she's still there) solve the mystery of a faith healer that isn't a fraud but his healing comes at a cost. The faith healer was about to die when on his way to the other side he saw an angel.  Somehow he was able to grab a wing from the angel and the possessor of the wing was granted the power to heal.  The downside, it's cost for those healed would be their souls and turned them into soul-less zombies.  The angel that was hurting from having the feather removed needed help. The help would be for evil rather than good as the angel was revealed to be one of the fallen aka a demon. Constantine and his observer from heaven, the angel he refers to as "Manny" would dispatch the fallen angel and raise concerns about the gap thinning between heaven and hell. The next e...

In an article I wrote about the UFC's recent signing of CM Punk I laid out the list of pro wrestlers switching to MMA .  I asked about the UFC's practices and as time goes on more points to just making money.  While you can't fault anyone for cashing in on a business model one has to wonder if they dishonor a sport made up of a multitude of Martial Arts. Ben Askren (14-0) was cut free of Bellator as their Welterweight champion and while his style is not the most entertaining to watch, he has earned his titles.  He fought through and won the Welterweight tournament to win the title, then when he left the promotion he fought and won the One FC Welterweight title. He did try for the UFC and they just were not interested. While he is finding success with One FC the signing of CM Punk is a bit of a slap in the face to Askren and he let that be known the night of the announcement on twitter. @ufc sign a fake wrestler, but not an Olympian who is the best WW in the wor...

Poster from NBC website promoting the show. This is the second time NBC has made a live broadcast of a popular play.  The first one was last year's The Sound of Music and however it did in ratings, Peter Pan: Live did 47% worst according to Deadline. It must be for the holidays they keep doing them but some classics are better left in their original format and better left for...people that want to see them. I don't get the reasoning behind these, not fan of musicals here on this site but in a time when most shows break for the mid-season finale's maybe the network is reaching for a non-sports related niche. It was still the 2nd most watched non-sports show on TV that night so its not all bad.  If they do one next year we'll know if the network still profits from them.   'Peter Pan Live!' Rating Down 47% From 'Sound of Music' Last Year | Deadline

Part 2 of the Arrow/Flash crossover continued Wednesday night with the Arrow's episode entitled The Brave and the Bold .  Like part one The Flash episode that took place in Central City, Arrow would have Flash come to his city and help with his villain of the week, Captain Boomerang. As corny as the villain sounded, he was not so corny in the action sequences that would have him face off against Arrow and crew.  The character is nicknamed by Cisco since he has the habit naming the villains he catalogs for the Barry's development as Flash. There was no Arrow vs Flash in this episode, but they would have a difference of opinion in how they would deal with extracting information from criminals.  They still work together to resolve their dilemma of Captain Boomerang.  One thing came out for sure in this episode, Oliver Queen despite all he has been through on the island, with Deathstroke, and losing his best friend and his mother.  He is still a spoiled r...

Photo from CW/ Flash Facebook page. Ever since Arrow has been on TV the landscape for shows based on comic books set a new bar. It's been said here before that Agents of Shield needs to take note when Arrow was binge watched on  +Netflix   and the same is true for The Flash .  Setting a new bar, the network is doing a crossover event with both shows and part one aired on Tuesday night. Tuesday night is the regular airing night for The Flash and coming the night before Arrow part one of the crossover was titled, Flash vs Arrow .  Barry Allen and the crew at S.T.A.R labs had to deal with their regular meta-human of the week, the only difference being they got some extra help from Oliver Queen.  He explains his presence in Central City as following up on a lead and hearing Barry's dilemma with the meta-human they code name: Prism.  Prism has the ability to instill rage into people by making eye contact with them.  Those effected go mad with rag...

First Poster for film from moviebuzzers.com Snowpiercer starring Chris Evans and John Hurt was a 2013 Science Fiction film based on a graphic novel of the same name. It takes place in the future on a really long train that the remaining human inhabitants live on because of the deep freeze that killed most life outside the train. Along with Evans, the cast includes John Hurt, Ed Harris, and Tilda Swinton. Science-fiction always seems to border the lines with horror and fantasy, this film is more towards the fantasy line.  People that are into the sub genre of steam-punk may find this film visually interesting. There is some action as Evans and his crew who represent the lower class people that were stow-aways when the trains journey began, fight their way to the front of the train. Swinton and Harris are on the other end of the trains class spectrum and represent the upper class that was meant to be saved on the train.  The plot has them using Evans side as slave ...