Sci-Fi Storm

With Syfy’s upcoming make-up competition series Face Off ready to start this Wednesday (January 26th at 10PM ET), Syfy is hold a Fan Face-Off Challenge on syfy.com. If you think you have what it takes, you can enter to have a chance for your make-up masterpiece evaluated by Face Off‘s judges and possibly win a prizes which include a MacBook Pro professional makeup tools.

If you are more make-up challenged but like to play around, you can transform yourself and your friends into frightening works of art right online, with the Facebook Face Off Challenge application.

The NBC Universal-Comcast merger appears to be having an effect on programming already. Despite NBC’s interest but ultimate passing just two weeks ago on David E. Kelley’s spec script for Wonder Woman, new president Bob Greenblatt revisted that decision and elected to pick up the show.

With The Hulk turning (ahem) green at ABC, could we see dueling comic heros – and comic book studios?

Craig Charles (Dave Lister), in an interview with the Daily Mail, confirmed that there will be another series of Red Dwarf – but Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) says he wasn’t supposed to, but “it just sort of slipped out.” And it’s a “full” series, but that means 6 half-hour episodes – but also to go back to filming in front of an audience – something that they haven’t done since 1998, although the producers are afraid that too much information might get leaked out on Twitter, Facebook, etc. during the long post-production time – something that didn’t exist in 1998.

The last Red Dwarf was the mini-series “Back To Earth”, which had mixed reviews – including my own.

Craig Engler from Syfy wrote an excellent article about the reality of television ratings, online viewership, DVRs, DVDs and even piracy – and why shows get canceled. I think it should be required reading before anyone complains about how “their” shows get canceled.

Now, I have questioned at times how Nielsen selects its 20,000 “families”. A long time ago we were selected as a test family. We had to fill out the logs manually for a week. At the end of that, we were told we were not the “type” of family they were looking for. Um…we watched plenty of TV that week, so I don’t know what they were looking for, but it sounded fishy. If the families are not selected truly randomly, then I think at some level the ratings will be skewed. 20,000 also seems like an awfully small number – but the TV networks, Nielsen and the advertisers seem to think it is enough, and we have to live with it.
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Just found out about this – if you are in the Los Angeles area and want to see some of the best makeup artists in action, Syfy will be throwing a live demonstration of its upcoming Face Off show at The Grove tomorrow (Thursday, January 20th, 2011) starting at 12:30pm PT, where the artists will transform models into the likeness of Mother Earth. Read on for the full details.
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The premiere of Being Human brought us into a townhouse in Boston where three young adults are just trying to live a normal life, but it’s harder than it looks when you’re a vampire, werewolf, and ghost. In the next all-new episode, Josh starts to become uneasy about having Sally’s former fiancé Danny over to the house. Uneasy is probably a lighthearted term compared to Josh’s state of concern. Sally begs and pleads but Josh fears Danny could potentially sell the place or turn it into an amusement if he’s able to see Sally as a ghost. Aidan stays calm and collected as usual. Will Danny see Sally or will he pass right by her? “There Goes the Neighborhood Part 2” airs Monday, January 24th, at 9PM ET on Syfy.

In the next all-new episode of Merlin, Merlin is tested as he stands up to Gaius. However, Gaius is possessed by a Goblin so Merlin can only attempt to strike fear in the Goblin without hurting Gaius. A bit of magic and secrets are revealed between the two, but Merlin makes a promise that he will not stop until Gaius is his old self. “Goblin’s Gold” airs this Friday at 10PM ET.

A lot of people tuned in for Syfy’s Being Human premiere, netting just short of 2 million people during the 9PM showing, and 3.8 million non-duplicated viewers over the three back-to-back showings to be the most watched winter premiere for the network since 2005. It will be interesting to see if the ratings hold overall, but I was very impressed. In know Syfy had very high hopes for this show and were fighting against an existing fan base of the UK show who saw this as just a carbon copy with American accents. After meeting the cast and seeing them interact, I also could see how the show could work – it needs a great cast.

I think they scored.

Sam Witwer (Aidan the vampire) I think has the rugged look and intensity that I think is fitting for the role, without opting for the “sparkly vampire” image that’s all the rage. Sam Huntington (Josh the werewolf) adds the deadpan humor at a level that I actually enjoy and will laugh out loud at. And Meaghan Rath (Sally the ghost) adds the cute and exciting but troubled character wondering why she’s still there and if she’ll ever leave.

Part 1 did seem to rush a bit of the situation into play (possibly to hook the users), but it wasn’t too bad – there are still plenty of things to in the coming episodes. There were a couple shots of Josh when they meet the new nurse that seemed a bit odd (almost as if they were filmed separately, with Huntington just mugging for the camera), but otherwise I think the filming worked well. Being from the Boston area I could tell a number of shots weren’t actually in Boston (it is filmed in Montreal for its similar feel), and I’d like to see some more “establishing” shots of Boston proper, but I’m not going to hold them to total accurate location shooting (but Syfy, if you do bring them down for location shots, let me know, it would be nice to meet them again and see some of the filming).

I’ve never been into the vampire/werewolf stuff as of late, but I find this orders of magnitude more interesting than Twilight, and I’m eagerly awaiting future episodes – which I really, really didn’t expect. And I’m happy about it.

I haven’t been thrilled with the recent cancellations of Caprica and Stargate Universe, but I think Syfy was right to have high hopes for this program.

Unlike it’s recent siblings Caprica and Stargate Universe, Sanctuary has been renewed for a fourth season. It appears to be a “short” order of 13 episodes like its first two seasons, instead of the 20 episode order of Season 3, but it’s still better than nothing, and it could potentially be expanded. Production will pick up in the Spring with the debut in the Fall. Read on for the Syfy release:
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And I’m not talking about Ricky Gervais’ borderline insult jokes…not that it is any surprise, since genre-wise there were precious few nominations, with Inception and Alice In Wonderland coming up empty (and it was though that Johnny Depp would have gotten Best Actor for either Alice or The Tourist). But at least related show Big Bang Theory got something with Jim Parsons getting Best Actor, Comedy/Musical – but lost out overall to Glee. Toy Story 3 picked up Best Animated Feature.