I thought I'd comment on some things in the entertainment realm.

Serenity

If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon spawn like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. In 2002, Whedon had another series on TV called Firefly which only lasted 11 episodes before the Fox network put the lid on it due to lackluster ratings.

Firefly still had life left in it, it seems. Universal made a deal with Whedon to take Firefly to the big screen and this last Friday, the film spawned by Firefly made its big-screen debut nationwide titled Serenity.

I was not planning on seeing Serenity anytime soon. In fact, if I was planning anything, it was to wait until the film was available on DVD. But, we got lucky. Christine managed to get my mom to agree to watch our kids Friday night so we could go to a movie. That movie, of course, was Serenity.

We made it to Jordan Landing about 25 minutes before the 7:15 show and got in line. When we were behind the people buying their tickets, one of the ticket clerks stood up and placed a "SOLD OUT" sticker over the 7:15 showtime for Serenity. Dang!

Christine was depressed, but I was vigilant and resilient. I remembered that the film was also playing at the Jordan Commons theater- so I used the fancy shmancy features of my Treo PDA/phone to find their phone number and had Christine call them while I started driving in the general direction.

Christine learned there was a showing at 7:45. We got there about 7:25 and I dropped Christine off at the door so she could get tickets (if any were available) while I found parking.

Parking was, of course, a challenge in of itself, but I managed to find a spot and proceeded toward the theater and tried to call Christine on her cell. She didn't answer but called back and told me to meet her outside theater 14. When I finally waded through the deep pools of loitering theater patrons and made it to "14," Christine was furious that I had taken so long. She obviously didn't know how far away I had to park and then I couldn't run because of all the people obstructing my way.

We got in and found a half-decent place to sit and I still had time to run out and get popcorn and a beverage. Ahhhh. We made it. We were going to see the film. The theater didn't sell out, that I know of, but it was pretty packed in. A lot of geeks out on the town Friday night.

Now, the film was awesome. The story starts shortly after where Firefly left off, so fans of the show got some continuity. There was a short introduction to get Firefly virgins initiated and familiar with the characters and it wasn't distracting at all.

River Tam (Summer Glau) in Serenity

The story was awesome. The characters were awesome. The acting was spectacular -- partly due, I'm sure, to the fact these people had quite a bit of time to settle into these roles before the film. The writing was, not surprisingly, witty, brutal, and honest. Perfectly Whedonesque.

The special effects were outstanding. Apparently, the same company was used that did the F/X for the TV show. They made great use of their expanded budget and produced imagery that blended perfectly on the big screen.

My only complaint is that it seems like Joss shot the show a little too much like TV. That's no surprise, really, because he hasn't had that much experience shooting for theater releases. It wasn't bad, by any means. I just noticed many times there were shots that were tight shots of characters that felt a little claustrophobic on the big screen. They could have pulled the camera back a bit- gave the scene some more breathing room and it would have looked, in my opinion, better.

I thought the character of Inara was especially beautiful and breathtaking to view even though her role in the film seems a bit small. River Tam's facial expressions alone were worth the ticket price for me. And, of course, Jayne never disappoints.

My verdict: I want to see it again in the theater. I will definitely own it on DVD. I either want to, preferably, see the series return to television with new episodes, or, alternatively, begin a film sequel franchise.

Smallville

Last Thursday was the season five premiere of Smallville. Over the weekend, I downloaded the episode and watched it twice -- once with Christine.

Very nice episode -- especially the shocking final 10 seconds of the show which I didn't see coming.

It will be interesting to see how this season shapes up. Lois Lane is now a full-time credited regular character. They gang isn't in high school anymore and we know, from Buffy, this can be a cumbersome transition for the writers. School is such a solid background. Now what?

The relationship between Lex and Clark is obviously more strained and the relationship between Clark and Lana less strained, but Lana grew up a LOT in the last season and now has her own agenda in finding the truth about the mysteries of Krypton that affect her.

And now Clark knows that Chloe knows his secret. And Chloe knows Clark knows. And Clark knows Chloe knows he knows.

Should be interesting. More knowledge-is-liability territory to explore there.

My verdict: I'm still hooked! I want more.

Desperate Housewives

Like a lot of people, I had no interest in Desperate Housewives when it was first promoted as the must see show on ABC Sunday nights. It seemed like a trashy drama-heavy soap.

But, somebody did something right because halfway through the season last year, I decided to download the 2-part pilot episode and give it a spin. I was hooked.

I think the things that attracted me to the show (besides the attractive actresses) were the music (Danny Elfman) and the pacing. During the first season, the writers were whipping through storylines about ten times faster than normal. After watching three or four shows, I felt like I'd watched a whole season's worth of situations and plotlines.

Anyway, a week ago Sunday was the season two premiere and I downloaded it last week. It was a good episode, although not as good as some of the season one episodes. The episode, more or less, tied up loose ends from season one and started to open up new mysteries for season two.

My verdict: Still interested, but it could lose my interest if it becomes more of a traditional soap and less of something crazy like it was in season one.