I watched an outstanding documentary last week called “Playing God”, which was a BBC broadcast hosted by Adam Rutherford. The main purpose of the documentary was to discuss the concept of synthetic biology. I won’t discuss it to a great extent but it is essentially “playing God” by manipulating genes and creating new biological creations in labs (or even on the street). 

The process isn’t overly complicated either - these “building block” type cells are used to manipulate the genome of other cell structures and create new life capable of doing things they shouldn’t. The documentary opens up with immediately addressing this fact by bringing up “spider-goats” which have been genetically engineered to produce strong webbing within their milk - absolutely bizarre.

The documentary was absolutely fascinating and was really eye opening. It’s incredible to see the type of things scientists are working on and what the future has to offer.

You can find the entire film available on YouTube here.

Meg and I finished Season 1 of American Horror Story this past week. I’ve written about how much I enjoyed the first couple episodes of American Horror Story, and found myself growing a bit tired of the formula. Each episode tends to have the same beats of action, and after realizing what these are, you can predict how the episode is going to unravel.

I have to admit that the last two episodes of the season were very enjoyable though. There were some decent plot twists, but if the finale is any indication of what awaits viewers in season two - I might be tuning out.

Either way, it was still a pretty decent show. Dark enough to hold interest, and mysterious enough to keep you entertained and guessing. If you haven’t seen it yet - definitely check out the first episode: you’ll most likely be intrigued enough to continue.

Meg and I watched a lot of “spooky” things this past Hallowe’en. Trying to get into the spirit of things, Meg suggested we try out the new FX show American Horror Story. I was hearing good things about it as well so we tried out the first episode and instantly fell in love with it.

The general storyline revolves around a family who has just moved into a haunted house. The show follows some of the “spirits” in the house and the impact these hauntings are having on the family. The show has been described as being somewhat “Lynchian” in nature - drawing a lot of similarities of David Lynch’s works, especially Twin Peaks. It is bizarre and absolutely shocking at times, but it is a great show.

The “horror” aspect kicks off really quickly in the first episode, and even the introductory title sequence is unsettling and jarring. After the first episode you start to figure out the beats of the story and begin to predict oncoming scares, so the terror wears off slightly - but the show is definitely a new favourite. It’s very obviously from the mind of Ryan Murphy though, so it does feel a little bit like Nip/Tuck only with a harder edge and less complication.

I definitely recommend checking this out. Watch the pilot episode and see how you feel. If nothing else, the pilot acts as a great standalone horror story.

This looks promising!

I finished Rhett and Link: Commercial Kings. There were only ten episodes so the season went by really quickly. In case you haven’t been following my blog, Rhett and Link and YouTube celebrities who now create local business commercials for their television show.

I found the majority of the commercials largely funny or interesting, but I found the humour to be slightly forced. It was always pushed a little bit further than necessary to prompt insane responses or make people feel uncomfortable. Other than that though, the show really showcased interesting people just trying to advertise their product.

Here are the commercials if you’re interested (note: not all have been uploaded, so I just linked the promos):
Episode 1 - Holiday Hotel For Cats and Supershmuttle
Episode 2 - Presidential Car Wash and Vicious Dogs
Episode 3 - Da Spot
Episode 4 - Ojai Valley Taxidermy 
Episode 5 - Make Me a Pro Wrestler Pro Wrestling School
Episode 6 - Yoga Loka and Fountain of Health
Episode 7 - The Town of Tonopah
Episode 8 - Bury Me Naturally and Heavy Hill’s Garbage Service
Episode 9 - Roller Kingdom
Episode 10 - Designated Drivers

I caught the tail-end of an episode of Ugly Americans a year back on TV and really liked it, but completely forgot about it up until recently. I just spent two days catching up on the series thus far and I really like it. It reminds me a lot of Mission Hill meets The Oblongs - or any other cartoon from the early 2000’s. It’s rude and crude at times, but overall is very funny.

Wikipedia couldn’t explain the show any better: “The series focuses on Mark Lilly, a social worker at the Department of Integration, in an alternate reality version of New York City with monsters and other creatures.” That’s the entire premise. His roommate is a zombie (but only turned zombie for a girl he liked who was into zombies at the time), his co-worker is a full fledged wizard, and his girlfriend is also his boss - and the daughter of Satan.

Every episode usually focuses on a new species entering the city and having to go through Mark at social services, or his co-worker wizard Leonard casting some sort of ridiculous spell - but just typing this stuff out does the show zero justice at all. It really just needs to be seen. You’ll know almost immediately if it’s up your alley or not, and if not - at least I tried.

Buy it on Amazon.ca:
Ugly Americans: Season One, Volume One - DVD

TV on DVD is a wonderful thing. It’s great to be able to complete an entire season of a show without the wait, but once you’re caught up you’re stuck waiting again. Meg and I cleared Breaking Bad season one last month and just finished season two this past week.

Much like the first season, Bryan Cranston does a fantastic job as school teacher turned meth cook, and the season almost doubled in length in the second season. This meant more episodes and more opportunities to tell more stories. I thought the subject matter in this season was a lot darker and some of the plot lines that took place had me wincing. Overall though this season was great. Now we have to find access to the third season and get on catching up as soon as humanly possible, this season ended on quite the cliff hanger. Should be great!

Buy on Amazon.ca:
Breaking Bad: The Complete Second Season (3 Discs) [Blu-ray]
Breaking Bad: The Complete Second Season (4 Discs) - DVD

What have I been up to for the past two weeks with my down time? Well, Blockbuster just got a shipment with Breaking Bad seasons one and two on DVD in it, so I decided to watch it and see what all the fuss has been about.

I loved Bryan Cranston in Malcolm in the Middle, but was a little depressed about his appearance on SNL this past season. He was underutilized and it lead to a fairly disappointing episode. All this aside of course, Meg and I blitzed through the first season (being a solid seven episodes) in a couple days and we were both impressed.

I thought the episode had everything that it needed. It was a great season, every episode being eventful and entertaining. You actually feel bad for Cranston’s character, and he makes you believe in everything his character does. It’s nice to be convinced by an actor as thoroughly as I am in this show. Now that we’re done season one, I’m sure within the next two weeks we’ll try and tackle the second season when we have some time, but I’ll be working a lot until school starts up so we’ll see what happens.

I highly recommend everyone check this show out. You can actually buy it on DVD and Blu-ray for fairly cheap right now as part of Amazon.ca’s Boxing Week sale:
Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season DVD
Breaking Bad S1: Comp [Blu-ray]