Television

I know, this has nothing to do with raising your kids – unless your kids are old enough to be introduced to these things (and really they’re never too young) but some deals are too good not to mention.

Over at the WB Store, which I don’t usually go to as it has very little that interests me, are two good deals:

Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: The Complete Series – $12

Brisco is one of those shows that confounded expectations; critics expected this to lead the pack back in 1993 when it debuted but instead it was the show that Brisco functioned as a lead-in to that took off – a little-heard of show called The X-Files. It also looked like a Western but contained a lot of sci-fi elements and a little bit of time travel (co-creator Carlton Cuse would go on to showrun Lost).

The eponymous hero is played by one Bruce Campbell, who you may be familiar with from…well, everything. Not unlike every other character Campbell has played, Brisco is a cynical, sarcastic smart-ass who falls head-first into trouble but ultimately comes through it with a heart of gold (still hidden under that smart-ass exterior, of course).

Brisco – a lawyer who turns bounty hunter after his US Marshall father is killed – gathers a revolving cast of off-beat friends and villains, with the late Julius Carry as bounty hunter Lord Bowler and Christian Clemenson as twitchy lawyer Socrates Poole being the most common allies (or enemies, as the case may be). Other recurring cast members include The Addams Family’ John Astin as eccentric inventor and Kelly Rutherford as Dixie Cousins, Brisco’s on-off love interest.

The series never really caught on and became a one-season wonder but it’s still very entertaining TV, and better than a lot of stuff on today. At $12 you can’t go wrong.

Flash, The: The Complete Series – $10

Another one-season wonder – in the wake of Tim Burton’s Batman, some bright spark decided that it would be a good idea to turn the Flash into some kind of neon-come-gothical TV show; they even got Batman composer Danny Elfman to write the show’s theme. And you know what, it’s pretty damn good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s camper than a row of tents but that doesn’t stop it being good.

The ridiculously muscular John Wesley Shipp (probably better known to people of a certain age as Dawson Leary’s dad) filled out an even more ridiculously muscular Flash suit and battled crime as the titular super-fast hero with the help of STAR Labs’ Tina McGee (an overly plummy Amanda Pays) and her assistant Julio (Alex Desert, also known as ‘the “This place is dead anyway” guy from Swingers‘ or ‘the blind guy from Becker‘ or ‘the voice of Nick Fury in the new animated Avengers‘).

The Flash himself in this version is Barry Allen and, just like the comics, he’s a police scientist. A lot of his traits, though, seem to be Wally West’s (ie he’s not as dull as dishwater) – and McGee herself was a love interest of Wally’s, so things got a bit lost in translation between comic and screen.

The show stuck rigorously to a villain of the week format – a couple featuring Mark Hammil as the Trickster and one with David Cassidy as Mirror Master – but the charm of the cast and the writing provided for a good season – and at $10, it’s a bargain.

Fun Flash Fact for you – the show was developed by Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson; the same team had a run (ho ho) on The Flash comic a few years ago. It wasn’t very good. Bilson is also the father of Rachel Bilson, who is not unattractive and once dressed as Wonder Woman in The O.C. (which is also awesome).

The Flash and Wonder Woman are co-founders of the Justice League. There’s a circular tedious link for you…

There’s Lego and then there’s Lego imitators; wannabes, rip-offs. I never had much time for them when I was a kid, and as I’ve been pretty much Lego-adverse – at least until recently – for my adult life, I never gave them much thought.

Then I saw the Doctor Who not-Legos while I was back in the UK several months ago by UK-based company Character Building.

I couldn’t help it; I picked up the TARDIS set with the 11th Doctor and Amy, a Dalek army-builder pack consisting of 5 red Daleks, a couple of the blind character packs – ending up with a Silurian, a Weeping Angel and another red Dalek – and the really-rather-awesome 11 Doctor set in TARDIS packaging.

Since then, through the wonders of eBay, I’ve managed to get hold of all the series 1 and 2 blind figures and a limited Cybermen army-builder pack (limited in the sense it was available from a single UK retailer and features different Cybermen to the regular army pack).

And they’re good. Very good. Granted, the figures aren’t quite Lego compatible (although you can switch heads with regular Lego minifigs) but they’re well designed and can be switched around with each other if you so desire to make a Cyberman-Amy.

The blocks are completely compatible with Lego, and perfectly sized so you can finally have Darth Vader execute his raid on the TARDIS that you always dreamed of.

There are a number of additional playsets available at varying prices; a Dalek Progenitor Room set, a Dalek Factory, a Cyberman Conversion Chamber, a pretty crappy Weeping Angels one (although some of the rock pieces may come in handy for regular Lego dioramas) but the big Kahuna of them all is the TARDIS Console Room set…

The main drawback of these for US buyers is that they’re pretty damn pricey. Entertainment Earth has a bunch coming into stock soon but depending on shipping costs you may be better off buying direct from the manufacturer in the UK.

So far, with the exception of the 11 Doctor set, the series has focused on the adventures and characters of the 11th Doctor but I imagine that as it moves forward we’ll get more characters from earlier incarnations of the Doctor. While I think I’d rather have had the characters more in line with regular Lego minifigs, I understand why they’re not and they are quite cute. I also understand why Lego passed on the license (if they were ever even interested) since Doctor Who isn’t quite the worldwide brand that Star Wars or even Pirates of the Caribbean are.

Regardless, I’d recommend these to any Doctor Who fan, or parent of one. As for Jack, well, he’s a little too young for these right now so I’ll just have to keep them.

Until he’s old enough. Of course.

Apparently the American Academy of Pediatrics have released a report saying that 90% of children under the age of 2 watch some TV every day and would be better off not doing.

Okay, I say. That’s fine. We started Jack on UK-import In The Night Garden when he was about nine months old to calm him before bed. It also kept him in place long enough to drink his milk in the morning. He still watches it, although it no longer has the same hold on him it used to. We also have Sesame Street on in the morning while we get ready for work, although it doesn’t usually hold his attention and he tends to play with it on the background when he’s not pooping/eating/getting dressed/brushing his teeth/tormenting the dog/raising holy hell.

I’ve also already said he loves Toy Story and the like, and if the weather’s bad and he’s bored of playing we’re not above putting it on and letting him watch it.

So while I understand what they’re saying, I don’t entirely think it’s fair. We don’t leave Jack in front of the TV on his own; we’re right there with him watching it. We talk with him about what he’s watching. We certainly don’t use it as a substitute for play – and he doesn’t watch TV at all while he’s in daycare.

We’re both working parents with a limited amount of time to spend with our son. We try to get outside as much as we can, we play as much as we can – but there are times where he simply isn’t that into it and he just wants to chill out.

We also make a point of not watching our own programs while he’s up (with the occasional exception of some news) as we don’t want to expose him to things which are beyond his age range – but believe me, there will come an age where he’s subjected to the full range of Star Trek, Buffy, Lost, BSG, Veronica Mars, Vampire Diaries and many other shows – but at ages where he’s appropriate. Right now, we’ll stick with Sesame Street and In the Night Garden.

Although remind me to post about the social inequalities and rampant sexual and political messages in In The Night Garden sometime….

via Deadline