I’m surprised to see Birds of Prey out on DVD, since I discovered recently that few people remembered it. It ran only 13 episodes in 2002 on the WB, which may have been part of the problem — there wasn’t a WB affiliate in our city at that point, for instance. And it didn’t have the popularity among teens (demographic appeal) that protects other low-rated WB shows. Actually, I’m having a hard time figuring out who the target audience for […]

I know I’m about a month late, but that’s why I love TiVo. I just got a chance to start catching up on episodes of the Middleman TV show airing on ABC Family. I’d tried the first comic issue back when it was a free taste, and I enjoyed it, but I never kept up with it. I’m glad I checked this out. It stars newcomer Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson (or “Dubbie”) and Matt Keeslar as the square-jawed, straight-edge […]

Out tomorrow is the final season collection of the Teen Titans cartoon series. (I’ve previously covered Season 1 and Season 2.) It’s 13 episodes on five discs. The first two episodes guest-star the Doom Patrol, Beast Boy’s earlier team, as a way of introducing their enemies the Brotherhood of Evil, who are the recurring villains this season. They’re made up, in their first appearance, of the Brain (a talking organ) and Monsieur Mallah (an intelligent gorilla). Two villains? Some brotherhood. […]

I knew there was a Honey and Clover live-action movie, although I haven’t yet seen the DVD, but I was surprised to find that there was also a live-action TV show. It ran 11 episodes earlier this year, and so far (two in), I like it better than the manga. Pictured, by character name, clockwise from top: Morita, Mayama, Takemoto, Hagumi, Yamada Mainly that’s because with actors, things aren’t so exaggerated. Hagumi isn’t so young-looking or ethereal as to be […]

Over my vacation last week, I was able to finish watching Kimi Wa Petto, the 10-episode live-action adaptation of one of my favorite manga series, Tramps Like Us. I loved it! I got caught up in seeing live people go through these scenes; it made the situation much more real and emotional for me. Plus, the actors were well-chosen. Sumire was tall and lovely, capable of realistically being called a masked doll but still clearly dealing with her feelings. Momo […]

After being reminded of this show, and how much I liked it as a kid, I was able to find a set of Automan episodes online. There were only 13 of them, aired in 1983-1984. Automan puts a slight science fiction overlay onto the traditional hour-long cop show. Desi Arnaz, Jr. plays Walter Nebicher (a name that exists only so people can “accidentally” call him Nebbish), a police officer who’s stuck in the computer room when he wants to be […]

Since I’ve been talking about beloved 1980s television, do you think there’s a chance I’ll ever see a DVD set of Probe? It’s best known (if at all) today for being co-created by Isaac Asimov, but I quite enjoyed this short-run TV mystery series. There was a two-hour pilot movie, followed by six hour-long episodes. (Judging by the comments there, some people are still bitter it’s gone.) Parker Stevenson co-starred as genius Austin James, who lived in a computer-controlled warehouse […]

I liked the first season of Teen Titans well enough that I rushed into the second. That was probably a mistake. The first episode, “How Long Is Forever?”, pits the Titans against a time-traveling thief, resulting in a surprisingly elegiac and overall depressing entry about losing friends and the ravages of time. Cyborg is particularly damaged, tethered to the tower due to his technology becoming obsolete. Beast Boy is fat, bald, and caged in a circus. Raven is utterly alone. […]