Mongrels is BBC Three’s upcoming urban, multi-species, adult, puppet comedy. It tells the tale of four urban animals who hang out together in the bin yard of an inner-city pub.
Scratch the furry surface and Nelson, the metrosexual fox; Destiny, the pretentious pedigree It-bitch; Marion, the abandoned street cat; and Kali, the deeply cynical pigeon, are kidults struggling with the everyday drama of life in the back-alleys of the urban jungle.
Mongrels is bold, mischievous, upbeat, surprising and colourful. It encompasses all human life, love and its contradictions – relationships, sex, aspirations, desperations and shattered dreams.
Written by Jon Brown, it will feature voices from an array of Britain’s fastest rising comedians, including: Rufus Jones, Lucy Montgomery, Ruth Bratt, Paul Kaye and Katy Brand.
Even though Heroes has been officially canceled (though creator Tim King still sounds hopeful), there is still hope for the superhero genre in prime time…
NBC’s The Cape is the story of a cop framed for murder who becomes a masked crusader to clear his name.
ABC’s No Ordinary Family centers around an ordinary family suddenly gifted with super powers such as Invulnerability, Super Speed, Super Strength, Super Jumping and more. Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz star as the super parents. But the show is up against GLEE so It may flounder.
Also due is a CW teen horror show about 3 teens who discover they are “changelings” and have magical powers. Roswell anyone?
GLEE’s latest heartthrob is the dreamy "former" Vocal Adrenaline star Jesse St James is played by talented and openly gay stage and screen actor Jonathan Groff. He was born March 26, 1985 in the Amish country of rural Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Although his family was generally more interested in sports than musicals, young Groff showed interest in the performing arts at an early age, often appearing onstage at the Fulton Opera House, a local community theatre and, of course all of his high school plays. Growing up a few hours from NYC also afforded him the chance to see many of the city’s theatrical productions.
In part to prepare for the university application process, Jonathan took a bus to nearby New York City to audition and promptly landed the role of Rolf in a revival of The Sound of Music. His budding theatrical success soon superseded Groff’s college plans.
Other Broadway credits include the 2005 musical, In My Life. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in The Public Theater in Craig Lucas’s The Singing Forest, and Prayer for My Enemy at Playwrights Horizons, and as Claude in Hair at the Delacorte in Central Park.
Groff is best known for singing both on and off Broadway opposite BFF Lea Michele (who not-so-coincidentally also plays GLEE’s Rachel Berry) in Spring Awakening, an extremely depressing and somewhat tragic musical about teen sexuality based on a 1891 German play of the same name (no wonder it’s depressing). Along with Groff, Lea Michele was part of Spring Awakening cast from the original off-Broadway stage in the summer of 2006 to the Tony Award winning Broadway production. In May 2007, Jonathan Groff was nominated for Tony Award as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for the role of Melchior, whom he portrayed from the musical’s Broadway debut on December 10, 2006 through May 18, 2008.
At The Ephrata Playhouse Groff portrayed such characters as Edgar in Bat Boy: The Musical and Ugly in Honk! After the success of Spring Awakening, Jonathan made a visit to The Ephrata Playhouse to reunite with some of his old cast members during a special event entitled An Evening With Jonathan Groff. Jonathan also played Woodstock organizer Michael Lang in acclaimed director Ang Lee’s delightful movie, Taking Woodstock.
While doing Spring Awakening on Broadway, Jonathan shot a television pilot called Pretty/Handsome for FX with Ryan Murphy. Though that project went nowhere, a year and a half later Murphy went on to create a little musical series about Show Choir GLEE with a cast that included Lea Michele (who Groff introduced) and the 2nd act role of Jesse St. James written just for Groff.
Although they are reportedly “on break,” Groff and his Hair replacement Gavin Creel have been called a "power couple" on broadway. Groff isn’t in for the long haul on GLEE. His stint has been called a “guest spot” that will last at least 5 episodes, and Jonathan’s scheduled to make his London stage debut in a revival of Deathtrap. Maybe the break will be over as Gavin Creel is currently in London as well to reprise his (and Groff’s) role of Claude in Hair.
So if you appreciate all the work I do on this blog AND you are a fan of any of the above, PLEASE stop by the Animated Heroes section and see the best current and classic Superhero Animation available on DVD.
Now we get the story behind last week’s Sue Sylvester Vogue video, among other things. The students and faculty alike embraced the power of Madonna in what Popapathy referred to as “the best episode yet.” It seems Madonna is Sue Sylvester’s touchstone. I’m not exactly sure, but it seemed that that video was actually produced in show continuity by Kurt and Mercedes.
I still would have liked to see more Kurt and Puck, but I’m thinking they’ll get to shine in due time. This definitely stepped up the game from last week’s Hello.
Now I wish THIS had been the Teen Titans cartoon series. I hated that anime travesty. This looks a lot more like what I wanted for DC’s legacy teens… something that has more in common with Justice League Unlimited than Pokemon. YOUNG JUSTICE is an all-new series from DC Entertainment and produced by Warner Bros. Animation.
In YOUNG JUSTICE, being a teenager means proving yourself over and over – to peers, parents, teachers, mentors and, ultimately, to yourself. But what if you’re not just a normal teenager? What if you’re a teenage super hero? How much harder will it be to prove yourself in a world of super powers, super villains and super secrets?
Are you ready to come of age in such a world? Are you ready for life or death rites of passage? Are you ready to join the ranks of the great heroes and prove you’re worthy of the Justice League?
They list Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis (a reimagined Arrowette? or is it Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark? I think the former) as the members of Young Justice. So who’s the guy in the lower right corner? Is that Soul Man Aqualad? Why is he the most prominently featured? He looks like the affirmative action character Spyke that Marvel added to that X-Men series a few years back. If they want to be more multicultural why not include Cyborg? or Thunder? or Lightning? (from Outsiders and JSA) OR Static? Will we see other Young Justice allies like Secret, Empress or L’il Lobo?
Not really loving the cargo pants on Conner, but I generally like the look of the rest.
I liked last nights episode of GLEE but it wasn’t half as brilliant as this little gem which followed it. I think it was because there wasn’t enough Kurt. I’ve heard he’s getting a boyfriend and they’ll be a “power couple” at the school, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m going to make Popapathy watch it after Modern Family and Cougar Town, but none of the songs REALLY stood out last night.
Just in case you missed out the first time around or wanted to refresh your memory before V restarts on March 30th. The 1st episode is only available for another 2 days so watch quick! Whether you were a fan of the original or are too young to remember it, this series is really interesting and has a great cast. I see definite potential here. I’d say it’s second only to Caprica in the current sci-fi TV Show area.
Superhero is The first official music video from new band TimAndTheSpaceCadets. It’s a bit bubble gum for me but it IS adorable. For videos, pictures, music, and lots more, be sure to check out their website… TimAndTheSpaceCadets.com
Plus “Tim” is kinda cute too. Great blue eyes. Possible retouched, but great.
As usual – his review is right on the money. GayComicGeek consistently has great reviews of comics, books, shows and movies that interest me. So OF COURSE he’s put up his opinion on Smallville: Absolute Justice…
I’m SO EXCITED!!!! I’m trying to explain the historical significance of the Justice Society of America’s first Primetime appearance to Popapathy but don’t think he’s feeling my joy.
A bit surprised Clark never thought to ask why they all looked so young. I’m hoping that Geoff Johns is grooming JSA to be Smallville’s spinoff successor. But if he is, the costumes need work. Stargirl looked OK, but how hard is it to design a belly shirt and hot pants. I stick by my original assertion that Hawkman should have been played by someone who was more believable as a mace-wielding barbarian. The ab covering harness looked ridiculous with Shanks’ (nice for an ordinary human but far from the Hawkman we are accustomed to) arms coming out of it. Dr Fate looked like he was wearing football pads under his blue spandex. Either cast actors who have the physique to fill the costume or hire better costume designers.
BUT enough negativity… costumes aside I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the 2 hour special episode. I hadn’t realized Checkmate was part of it until I read the on demand episode synopsis. Pam Grier as Amanda Waller is sheer brilliance and it looks like we’ve not seen the last of her… or hopefully the JSA. FINGERS CROSSED! WE LOVE YOU GEOFF JOHNS!
Posted in SFW, TV Shows on 01/30/2010 09:57 pm by fanboi
I Laughed, I Cried, It Became a Part of Me
The final (snif sniff) episode of the series is Epitaph 2: Return. Jump 10 years in the future to the second half of the rarely seen (only on the DVD) first Season 13th episode – Epitaph 1. Meet Zone, Mag and a little girl who is imprinted with… well watch for yourself dammit! I looked like a schizophrenic mess watching it – laughing one minute and weeping the next. Fun for the whole family. Well that is if your whole family enjoys apocalyptic nightmare scenarios involving out of control mind control tech that was created to build a better hooker. I LOVE JOSS WHEDON! Bye Echo! You’ll be missed
Only flaw I noticed was no attempt to make the characters LOOK like it was 10 years older. Seemed a bit odd that they looked like they hadn’t aged a day since the fall of Rossum.
I’m so sorry Joss didn’t get a chance to tell us more from the Dollhouse universe. As commented in the post about the previous episode, Whedon truly is a storyteller of epic proportions. As much as I’d like to see him write for the movies, I hope he hasn’t REALLY given up on series television. Love your work Joss!!!! Network execs suck. Its all numbers. I don’t know how they even figure those numbers now anyway – on demand and websites like hulu making sharing TV possible online, the ratings of who watched it the night it aired are irrelevant.
The comment also blaming the audience isn’t that far off the mark. The general public would rather watch petty fame whores duke it out over whose the better dancer, cook, hairdresser, dressmaker, interior designer, drag performer or pet groomer (really?). And while I’ll reluctantly admit to loving Tabitha’s Salon Takeover (just because she is a bitch from hell doesn’t make her wrong) and the first few seasons of Runway, I think reality TV is a serious danger to the future of original programming and we get closer to The Running Man every day.
I also think there are many Joss Whedon fans who gave up when they were not grabbed by the first 5 or so episodes. In some ways the series didn’t really pick up until we started learning more about “Alpha” and the danger he represented, and I think too many of the Buffy and Firefly fans dropped off before Dollhouse reached a point where they might have been hooked.
Smallville Absolute Justice airs on the CW for 210 days
The highlight of the last season of Smallville was the Legion of Superheroes episode written by Geoff Johns. So of course I was overjoyed to hear that he was bringing the superteam he made great again to the small screen – The legendary Justice Society!!!! Hawkman, Dr. Fate and Stargirl are the announced guest stars, but I’d expect a few more easter eggs for the fanboys in the viewing audience. Absolute Justice is a special 2 hour Smallville event so be sure to tune or set your VCR, Tivo or whatever on Friday, February 5th at 8pm! Not to be missed. THERE WILL BE A TEST.
I’m not sure how I feel about the casting of Michael Shanks as Hawkman – I loved his character on Stargate, but he does not have the body of a mace-wielding winged barbarian. Carter Hall may be an archeologist by trade, but he looked more like a mercenary. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I see the episode, but from the look of Shank’s arms in the costume, I doubt it.
Posted in SFW, TV Shows on 01/19/2010 08:14 pm by fanboi
Make sure you’ve seen the first episode of 2010 before watching the video below or reading further – I MEAN IT!
With last second to last weeks episode (below) tying so many loose ends into a tight little bow, we only have one more hour of Dollhouse left before it sadly fades into TV oblivion. This is such a great show that I’m going to be severely bummed every time I remember that its over.
Echo and her very own Scooby Gang into the heart of Rossum to retrieve the potentially world-ending tech Topher designed AND to take down the head man, problem is she brought him with her!
The final episode appears to be a continuation of the unaired 13th episode from 1st season (available on the DVD) set in the apocalyptic future that resulted from the out of control Dollhouse tech.
It is a LITTLE gay. Actually it’s a LOT gay. ENJOY! Smallville’s Aquaman Alan Ritchson happily hazes some of his hot jockstrapped teammates from Blue Mountain State – a new show on SPIKE which I’ve not heard of, but based on this clip I’ll definitely have to check out… Anyone watch it? Is there a gay player? Fingers crossed!
I need to watch this show if only to find out exactly what kind of freak Ritchson is playing. He’s a bit too eager to run with the boys, and there’s the ending… (watch the whole video – there’s a special treat in last few seconds). Here’s a peek into the psyche of Thad Castle…
UPDATE: I watched 2 back-to-back episodes of Blue Mountain State tonight… one was the clip that the jockstrap cookie race was in (so now the rest is starting to make sense), the other took the boys to a strip club. This is a show that is trying to offend, but I couldn’t help laughing. Alan Ritchson as Thad Castle is the worst kind of alpha male… a physically perfect asshole with little to no regard for others. He’ll make an excellent villain/foil for the frosh that he torments. I’m curious if they will explore his character or keep him the cartoon he is and just play it for laughs. Latter is the surer bet, but I’d watch either. He’s just SO pretty.
Posted in SFW, TV Shows on 01/09/2010 08:40 pm by fanboi
Its a bit of a Whedon love fest here lately, but I’ve been waiting for this since the last batch of Dollhouse episodes I watched. More history on Caroline and her “friend” Bennet as Echo seeks to add her original personality as Caroline Farrell. PLUS The explosive return of Amy Acker as Dr. Saunders. Also who is mysterious face behind Rossum!
FANTASTIC episode!!!!! I wish some of the people who checked it out early first season and lost interest would start watching again. It has been amazing lately. This episode REALLY blew my mind. Leaves me with SO many questions!
Its a brand new year and about time for all the shows to come back from their mid-winter break. Monday night brought us a special 2-hour episode of Heroes…
Did the dreadlocked carny FIX Hiro’s tumor or just give him a wicked case of word salad? I love his scrambled fanboy speech and found myself saying “that’s where the X-Men train” at the exact same time as Ando which amused Popapathy to no end. Here are the geekboy references I caught so far… Don Quixote, Star Wars, Highlander, Battlestar Galactica, Camelot, Batman, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, X-Men and Spider-Man. Did I miss any?
How does Samuel know so much about the powers of deaf Dazzler/Venus? Either HRG must have bagged and tagged her at some point in the past and cataloged her abilities before Haitianing her, or Samuel’s met someone like her before. The former seems more likely.
But what exactly does he have planned? A lovely green homeland for the super powered carnies in an of itself isn’t a danger? or is it? Considering the events happening right now in Marvels’ The Siege, maybe creating a maintain fortress for a colony of powerful beings might not go over well with the Government. Also considering Samuel killed a partyful of rich folks just for kicks, what kind of collateral damage might he create in making his paradise?
His family finally gets to say farewell to Nathan Petrelli. We’ve been so busy watching Sylar running around with his face that there was no time to mourn Nathan’s passing. Umm they couldn’t spring the extra $$$ to have his wife (Rena Sofer) and children show up at the funeral? Instead they have some stand in with dark hair in the background at the wake.
What is it with insane earth movers? Samuel’s power FX are put to good use here. I shudder to think what he could do to a populated area if he chose. Even big bad Sylar was taken out pretty fast (a little too fast – there should have been an X-Men-3 wolverine-struggling-through-the-fire-moment). It looks like although Nathan may be gone, some of him remains in Sylar who is having a hard time getting his index finger up enough to kill. I have to admit I’m positively atingle at the thought of Sylar all tatted up like Lydia, her ability will be a nice addition, glad she didn’t have to die for it. Thought she was a goner when she called him impotent. But isn’t it interesting that what he wants/needs is Clair?
And c’mon how much would have had to pay West to fly in for a cameo instead of just suggesting he came by off camera.
Interesting preview… our deaf dazzling siren seems to be riding a carnival ride with her cello and crazy eyes like she’s gonna play a tune and go boom. Hope Peter can save her!
I absolutely LOVE the way they are telling the story of the developing relationship between Oliver and Kyle on One Life to Live. They are so sweet, tender and romantic together. I wonder how the suburban moms of the midwest are taking it…
Plus a few more moments with Oliver and Kyle…
I know the storyline will only go on as long as the regular viewers like it so I hope they are enjoying the beefcake as much as we are. There have been other gay arcs on soaps before, but the characters generally get shuffled off into limbo eventually. Lets hope Oliver and Kyle become longtime Llanview residents.
Posted in Gay TV, TV Shows on 12/29/2009 02:19 pm by fanboi
GLEE, Vol. One: Road to Sectionals (first half of Season One) is already available on DVD! Now I also generally prefer to wait for a full season box set, but I thought I would include this because hulu only shows the 5 most recent episodes and I figured with the buzz surrounding the show, there might be latecomers who want to catch up before the second half of the season begins. So check out this item and much more (GLEE Sheet Music, All 14 GLEE Posters, 2 Soundtrack CDs and and endless supply of individual MP3 downloads) in the GLEE section of the QueerSUPE Comic Book (and pop culture) Shop.
GLEE is definitely one of my top favorites this season, and actually the only show I ALWAYS watch the night it airs as opposed to catching it later on hulu. The cast is amazing and I’m loving the journey their characters have been going on thus far this season. I’ve previously admitted to being partial to musicals so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that I think GLEE is the best show on TV at the moment.
If you visit the GLEE section of the store, be sure to check out all the individual MP3 downloads! Some REALLY great stuff.
Here is a look back at some pivotal moments from prime time soaps reflecting the evolution of the way gay male characters have been portrayed on American network TV over the past 25 years.
