Distraction
Aug. 9th, 2007 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffySat through a couple eps of The Burning Zone this evening as a palliative for the teeth (my lower left jaw is all kinds of unhappy). Figured squeeing might contribute a few useful endorphins to the cause.
In the first one I watched, a group called the Gethsemane Project was dispatching death row inmates with pseudo-lethal injections so they could bring back messages from "The Other Side". The Other Side was actually a Hellmouth and the resurrected inmates were possessed. (The deja vu was beyond ironic!) Marcase ended up temporarily dead, thereby giving JDM a perfect score, as far as I can tell.
The second ep was the one with Nicholas Lea as the leader of a healing cult who communed with serpents---eeevil, naturally.
When I originally watched TBZ at the time it first aired, I thought of it as an X-Files/Outbreak hybrid---disease of the week meets monster of the week. Having seen a half-dozen eps within the last couple of weeks, I'm noticing religious undertones that I was oblivious to the first time. Not surprising, given that executive producer Coleman Luck was also a coproducer on Six: the Mark Unleashed---quite possibly the ONLY entry in the genre "Christian Action movies". (Trust me, the ONLY reason to watch it is large doses of JDM, including a few tasty torture sequences. Yes, I am a twisted sister!) However, aside from the dated cheesiness of some of the f/x, Burning Zone works as entertainment.
Now if only they'd release it on DVD.
In the first one I watched, a group called the Gethsemane Project was dispatching death row inmates with pseudo-lethal injections so they could bring back messages from "The Other Side". The Other Side was actually a Hellmouth and the resurrected inmates were possessed. (The deja vu was beyond ironic!) Marcase ended up temporarily dead, thereby giving JDM a perfect score, as far as I can tell.
The second ep was the one with Nicholas Lea as the leader of a healing cult who communed with serpents---eeevil, naturally.
When I originally watched TBZ at the time it first aired, I thought of it as an X-Files/Outbreak hybrid---disease of the week meets monster of the week. Having seen a half-dozen eps within the last couple of weeks, I'm noticing religious undertones that I was oblivious to the first time. Not surprising, given that executive producer Coleman Luck was also a coproducer on Six: the Mark Unleashed---quite possibly the ONLY entry in the genre "Christian Action movies". (Trust me, the ONLY reason to watch it is large doses of JDM, including a few tasty torture sequences. Yes, I am a twisted sister!) However, aside from the dated cheesiness of some of the f/x, Burning Zone works as entertainment.
Now if only they'd release it on DVD.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 06:20 am (UTC)I believe (though I may be wrong) TBZ is out on DVD, but is expensive...65 or 70 bucks. I'd dearly LOVE to have it
And Six? With the exception, as you say, of Jeff, SUCKED!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:03 pm (UTC)Six: I sat through it twice. For Jeff. With one finger on the fast-forward button.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 11:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:16 pm (UTC)I discovered that some kind soul has put lots of JDM's turn as Denny Duquette on "Gray's Anatomy" on YouTube and I watched bits of it the other day. In the pivotal scene in which Denny lets his doctor know exactly what his illness had cost him, he refers to himself as a "big, virile, horse of a man." Made me weak in the knees, it did.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 12:11 pm (UTC)*snort* Well, they always say, stick with what you know...and JDM has said he knows how to die. ;)
Man, they need to release this on DVD so I can see it...
Having seen a half-dozen eps within the last couple of weeks, I'm noticing religious undertones that I was oblivious to the first time.
Yeah, I seem to recall that's why JDM apparently left the show (and temporarily crippled his career) was a disagreement between him and the producers about the spiritual component. I think they wanted to take it out, and he disagreed.
Coleman Luck was also a coproducer on Six: the Mark Unleashed---quite possibly the ONLY entry in the genre "Christian Action movies". (Trust me, the ONLY reason to watch it is large doses of JDM, including a few tasty torture sequences. Yes, I am a twisted sister!)
*nods* JDM sure is tasty in Six (he's one of the few guys I fangirl whom I can stand in a beard), but yeah, I have to fast-forward through the 'sermonizing'. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:24 pm (UTC)Some of Marcase's dialog *could* be awfully heavy-handed, but he's very low-key and sincere about it. I find myself wondering how much of that was the character and how much was just plain Jeff. I *am* pleased to realize how in-character my Marcase was in Bad Fairy, dispite not having seen the show in a decade at the time I wrote it.
JDM sure is tasty in Six (he's one of the few guys I fangirl whom I can stand in a beard), but yeah, I have to fast-forward through the 'sermonizing'. :)
I can see a *lot* of John Winchester in that part (although Six came first). I have a thing for bears, so a good beard---yay! Much love.
Sermonizing? Oy vey. There were part of it that were painfully flashing MESSAGE! in neon, some of it was a little more subtle, but a lot of it was outright hysterical. It read like some hardcore Christian's nightmare of what would happen if the Humanists were in charge---Your pleasure will be your guide: Screw everyone of both genders, no inhibitions, no monogamy---hedonism forced on everyone! (Oh, the horror! And poor Jeff getting in trouble because he just wanted to be faithful to his wife---whose name was Jessica, which made me snicker uncontrollably....)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 05:38 pm (UTC)Considering how turned-off I am about religion at the moment, I can't help hoping most of it
I have a thing for bears, so a good beard---yay! Much love.
*mmmm* *visualizes being in one of John/JDM's bear-hugs*
There were part of it that were painfully flashing MESSAGE! in neon, some of it was a little more subtle, but a lot of it was outright hysterical. It read like some hardcore Christian's nightmare of what would happen if the Humanists were in charge
*lol* Pretty much! I'm glad it wasn't just me, though. I'm pretty anti-religion (not Christian per se, pretty much ANY religion) so sometimes I wonder if I'm wincing because those scenes really ARE that bad, or because of my anti-ness. :)
Which is too bad. I love dystopian movies with a passion, and this could've been a MUCH better film (for me, anyways) if they'd had less or more subtle 'messages'.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-09 06:03 pm (UTC)I know what you mean! It's the kind of thing that makes me want to do a massive dystopian crossover: Six, Equilibrium, Logan's Run, Aeon Flux...which I know I won't do, because I don't have enough time as it is, but it's tempting!
I wonder if I'm wincing because those scenes really ARE that bad, or because of my anti-ness.
Could be some of both. It's pretty bad! There was a time in my life when I probably would've started foaming at the mouth and growling "Oh, bullshit!" at the screen. What's ironic is, the Unitarian philosophy that's given me a more relaxed perspective is *exactly* the kind of thinking Six's creators were railing against.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-10 06:47 pm (UTC)*lol* It would certainly make for an interesting challenge.
What's ironic is, the Unitarian philosophy that's given me a more relaxed perspective is *exactly* the kind of thinking Six's creators were railing against.
*snort* And I'm not Christian of any stripe, so I'm sure they'd think I'm Hellbound already....even before I started with the smut!writing. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-11 05:52 am (UTC)During the later half of my 20s, and the first half of my 30s, I professed to be an athiest, but somewhere in there I realized I *do* believe in a spiritual power, I just happen to think It is something so vast that limiting It to a gender-specific noun or one particular entity who plays favorites with a given group of people is just absurd. When I chose to anthropomorphize It, I tend to lean toward the pagan "Lord and Lady", but that's what works for me. Somebody's Buddhist? Cool. Christian? Whatever. Pastafarian? All rightey! As long as y'all don't ring my doorbell at OMG in the morning on my day off, I don't give a rat's ass. (Killing people in the name of religion?! Gets you reincarnated as a black chicken and sacrificed in a voodoo rite...for your next couple of lifetimes, clucker.) I have plenty of religious tolerance, but *not* a whole lot of patience with assholes.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-11 06:13 pm (UTC)*nods* Exactly.
As long as y'all don't ring my doorbell at OMG in the morning on my day off, I don't give a rat's ass
*lol* I couldn't agree more!
I have plenty of religious tolerance, but *not* a whole lot of patience with assholes.
*nods some more* ITA. Worship your way, and I'll worship mine, and please lay off with the converting/suicide bombing/Crusading, mmmkay? It's like the old joke goes: Religion = arguing over who has the best imaginary friend. I'll drop religion in favour of spirituality and personal relevance, thanx.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-12 04:27 am (UTC)Hee! Brilliant!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-12 03:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-12 05:46 pm (UTC)