Say what you will about SyFy Channel's crappy "reality" shows like GHOST HUNTERS, their Turkey-of-the-Week original movies ("
TURKEYSAURUS!" That's not a real title, but please don't anyone suggest it to SyFy executives!), or, God help us all, wrestling, they have occasional shows (EUREKA and WAREHOUSE 13) that are amusing and entertaining, if rather on the dumb side. ALPHAS, a little more adult in tone, got off to a slow start, but it's been growing on me.
But the best show on SyFy isn't on TV. It's a web series called THE MERCURY MEN, 10 short episodes that evoke not only the feel of old movie cliffhangers, but show a strong influence by the original black-&amwhite episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS from the 1960's. Not just in the cinematography and special effects, but in the feeling of paranoia and entrapment that was so common in those old TOL episodes.
Official website, with links to episodes,
here.
3 comments:
Have you read any of the Shadow Unit stories? There are people who wonder if Alphas owes a little something to Shadow Unit, or if it's just independent creation. I haven't seen Alphas, so I can't guess.
I read some of the introductory material when Shadow Unit first got announced, but have never gotten around to reading actual stories/episodes.
I'm a slow adapter, and while I don't seem to have trouble reading non-fiction on the computer, somehow it still feels wrong to read fiction off a screen.
I'm getting over this a bit, with the e-reader app on my smartphone. Not much trouble there. Which makes me think it's also still an issue of ergonomics. You can't hold a monitor, or a laptop or netbook, easily in your hands. And if you can't hold it in your hands, it's not a real book.
But from what I remember of the Shadow Unit material, any resemblance between it and Alphas is most likely just the old "Great minds think alike" problem.
FandSF has the Great Minds problem.
Shadow Unit has ebooks now, and treebooks are next.
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