I'm trying to get back to this site finally, and what better occasion than a super-exclusive happy-fun-times exclusive sneak preview whachamahoozit. Review. Of Serenity. For the vast majority of you who don't know what the fuck that is: Joss Whedon had this crap show, and Universal likes him so much they let him milk the fanbase for every penny. Which is kind of his skill., so I can understand it. You may be approached by scary people who will try to convince you that it is a groundbreaking science fiction movie. Treat them as you would Scientologists. Also, just for the record, I will never stop chanting, "It's not a goddamned western if there's an all-powerful authoritarian government that is one step behind you at every turn."

Anyway. The review is not by me. Consider the author the long-lost sister of Edgar Harris. She actually saw all of Firefly , so this is someone with a lot more tolerance for Whedon than I have. She's an alert reader I've corresponded with for a while, and when she saw the movie and told me about it, I begged her to let me put her comments up. Because I'd love to get some hate mail myself, but not enough to shell out the $6 for a matinee. Be warned that if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, you don't want to read this. Also, if you're going to be upset by reading anything besides enthusiastic comments about Whedon's sad little stillbirth, you don't want to read this. If you want to complain that anyone who dislikes Serenity, or, for that matter Firefly, is mean and bitter and Just Doesn't Get it, you've somehow mistaken this for Whedonesque. The color scheme should have been a clue.

I think that covers all the warnings. Still wanna read it? It's here. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, in my own life... If you've been online for very long, you've read "this is why I haven't updated in almost a year" entries before. I was busy. It wasn't very interesting. I bought a condo. It's nice. I'm trying to adjust to having soul-crushing debt as a result. I'm halfway through putting together a little photo spread because I could definitely use some decorating tips. And I am taking a break from recapping, because I'm fried. But I still love Battlestar Galactica, and you should read Jacob's recaps because he's a lot better at being funnier about a show that's actually good than I ever was. The bastard.

Speaking of which, (and Mugga, if you're reading, skip the next two paragraphs) how kick-ass was "Pegasus"? Here is my Sad But True Confession: after all my carping about the applause-fests they have on Galactica -- and I'm not taking any of that back, because the problem is that when they do it every other week it loses all meaning -- by the end of "Pegasus" when Adama got ready to send out the troops, I was clapping. I may, in fact, have been slow-clapping. And I was spoiled for the episode. But, and I think this is kind of the point, I was clapping because the characters weren't. For them, it still sucked, so I didn't feel like the writers were demanding that I be giddy. Which gave me room to be giddy, basically. And I was.

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but my new theory of the week is that, in keeping with the Greek theme, Pegasus is the Spartans. Galactica is the Athenians. Which means the Cylons are the Perisans. Which is really perfect, because Zoroastrianism was basically the beginning of psedo-monotheism. It's one of those things that fits so perfectly that it's probably unintentional. I have a history of finding perfect correspondences that were completely unintended by the writer. But occasionally they were intended, and then I get to feel smart, so let's all pretend.

Golly. There's a lot of stuff to talk about. Lots of comics. Not too many books, sadly, because I've had No Time To Read. Stephen Hunter's still a thorn in my side.

I've been enjoying Supernatural because it's so, so bad. And because Jensen Ackles is reminding me of James Spader in some way that I cannot pin down. I think it's because he's playing a slightly sleazy character as if he is slightly sleazy, instead of trying to make him adorable. I appreciate that. Also, the first three times that Johanna told me that the actor's name was Jensen Ackles, I heard "Jense Nackles." Which made no sense, but it's kind of his fault for having the first name "Jensen." Anyway, I'm hereby starting a campaign to get people to call him "Nackles." Because it's a funny story by Donald Westlake, and, um, there's no other good reason for it, really. I just like to say "Nackles." Nackles nackles nackles. And it'd save me time if I could call him that and people would know who I meant. Is that selfish? Demian recapped the premiere as part of TWoP's fundraiser for Donor's Choose, and you can read it here. I'm not really going to be linkiing to every recap on TWoP, honest. But I had to for this, because Demian's just so funny.

Pasadena starts on SoapNet this weekend. I cannot wait. Because from what I remember, it went from odd to totally crazy just in the four episodes that aired, and so I can't wait to see what happens in the 8 episodes that didn't air.

Oh, lord, and Profit. I have to talk about Profit a lot. But it'll have to wait a couple more days. If you didn't know that it's out on DVD, you do now. With lots of commentaries that are really, genuinely amusing. Get it. G'wan. Do it. It'll make you feel good. All the cool kids are doing it. It's 10 hours of extraordinary television for $15-20, depending on where you shop.

On that note, I have got to sleep. But I really, truly will be updating more regularly (or at least, less sporadically) again, now that I've re-learned how to do CSS. I think. Stay tuned, true believers.