I've already blown smoke up the ass of the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA of late, so I didn't want to do it again so soon. But then I went and watched HOME, PT 2, tonight on Sky One. Great episode. Says a lot about the level of complexity of this series that we have to wait until episode seven of series two to get a sense of completion to so many plot threads scattered since the original mini-series. And also, to have a character actor of James "THE WARRIORS" Remar's chops turn up for what was essentially an unnamed, inconsequential cameo role? Impressive. Going by the episode guide floating around on the internet, it looks like these two trends (plots speeding up and resolving, big name guest stars) will continue until the end of the season.
Over at Ain't It Cool News, they've been moaning a lot that the UK got the second half of the last series of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED before the Septics did. The irony, lost on Knowles' henchmen, being that we hadn't seen the first half yet (verily, those choobs at Cartoon Network/Toonami couldn't organise a piss-up in the Bushmills distillery). Anyway, with half-term in full flow, they've been fixing that mistake, and my Sky+ box is filling up with plenty of Bruce Timm-y goodness. Good stuff so far? The Joe Kubert tribute in To Another Shore. The fleshing out of The Flash in Flash and Substance (the scene where The Flash, played by Michael Rosenbaum, sits down in a bar with The Trickster, played by Mark Hamill, was pure gold) . The look on Batman's face after he's realised The Deadman used his body to shoot Devil Ray in Dead Reckoning - now that's just getting how to write Bruce Wayne. That even a show that's ostensibly "a kid's cartoon" takes the piss out of Bush's defence policies in Patriot Act. How recasting John Stewart as a Lancelot figure in an Egyptian version of the Camelot myth expertly reconciles the whole Green Lantern/Hawkgirl/Hawkman (also played by James "THE WARRIORS" Remar, symmetry fans!) love triangle they've been setting up since the start (in an episode, tellingly enough, written by DC's resident continuity fixer-upper, Geoff Johns). The visual overload of the Legion Of Superheroes episode Far From Home - now that's how you do a greatest-hits style Legion that hits everyone's fanboy geek-spot.
So, easily the best attempt at televising super heroics, yet done so without anything like due acclaim or mainstream recognition. Like most geeks, I can't believe it looks like Warner Bros. are going to just disband Timm's production unit after this series and a Superman direct-to-DVD movie. Here's hoping someone like Pixar make the guy some kind of offer-he-can't-refuse the second he's out of contract.