I feel good. I knew that I would. I feel good, so good, so good, I got you. I feel nice, like sugar and spice. I feel nice, like sugar and spice. So nice, so nice, I got you.

I always wondered why James Brown was referred to as “the hardest working man in show business.” After watching Get On Up, his biopic from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, I’m beginning to understand that moniker a little better. Prior to now, most of my knowledge about James Brown was based upon his cameo in The Blues Brothers (one of my all-time favorite movies) and the old SNL skits with Eddie Murphy impersonating him doing ridiculous things like singing about his hot tub or doing an over-the-top rendition of Annie. I always enjoyed his music casually from afar, but never really delved into the heart and soul of it. After watching this movie, I’m exploring more songs from Brown’s vast catalogue of hits and discovering that maybe, just maybe, I have a little bit of the funk in me after all. (Well as much funk as a white girl in her thirties from the Midwest is capable of anyway.)

Directed by The Help’s Tate Taylor, Get On Up follows along the lines of other past heartfelt musical biopics such as The Buddy Holly Story, La Bamba, Walk the Line and Ray. It tells the story of Brown’s rise to the super stardom stratosphere after a pretty dismal childhood speckled with bouts of domestic violence, poverty, fear, racism and abandonment. It is at times just as poignant, artsy and transcendental as other biopics, while at other times, it is difficult to follow because the story of Brown’s life is told out of sequential order. It’s as if the director wanted you to feel like you were in Brown’s befuddled mind, mixing up the order of personal and career milestones, while taking the audience on an unforgettable journey through one of the music industry’s most enigmatic, charismatic personalities.

Chadwick Boseman gives an amazing performance as James Brown. I must confess I had to look up the IMDb credits for him because I didn’t recognize him from anywhere else. Aside from doing a lot of television work for shows including All My Children, Fringe, Castle, Persons Unknown and Lie to Me, Boseman was also Jackie Robinson in the movie 42, which I missed. While I can’t vouch for his performance in 42, everything about him in Get On Up is on-point, from the groovy pompadour hairstyles and elaborate ‘70s stage costumes to the outrageous dance moves and over-the-top persona that was James Brown. Brown is certainly not an easy act to follow, but I believe he nailed it, even if he was lip-syncing the soundtrack. And his co-star Nelsan Ellis gives an equally remarkable performance as Brown’s right-hand man, Bobby Byrd. I’ve always loved Nelsan as Lafayette in the HBO series True Blood, but seeing him in this role gave me a newfound respect for him and his acting abilities. He’s so much more than just another pretty face in Hollywood. As the best friend constantly standing in a superstar’s shadow, his character shows the most emotional depth and growth when compared to anybody else in the movie.

Much of Get On Up centers around the complex relationship between James Brown and Bobby Byrd. Bobby discovered James when he was just 17 years old and in prison for petty theft. Taking him under his wing in his church’s gospel group, it quickly becomes apparent to Bobby that James is meant to shine in the spotlight. Although James develops a bigger ego as the years wear on, Bobby is the one person who understands his genius and doesn’t seem to take it personally when he goes off on his tirades. From watching this biopic, one can ascertain that James Brown was some kind of mad perfectionist when it came to his music. If his band members were late or held up the musical process in any way, he belittled and fined them for wasting his precious time. The man may have marched to the beat of his own drummer far more often than most, but you have to have mad respect for someone that disciplined, innovative and motivated to succeed. There’s a reason why James Brown is one of the most sampled artists in the long and illustrious history of music, as this movie so clearly demonstrates.

I was not a big fan of Brown’s many asides to the audience throughout the movie. While they occasionally made me laugh, they sometimes felt a bit stilted and disjointed. I don’t think the movie would have suffered any without them. It felt as if they relied too heavily upon this gimmick to reveal key pieces of information that probably would have been more effectively revealed in dialogue. But even if there are minor flaws in the seemingly scattered storytelling, the casting for Get On Up is spot-on. Dan Aykroyd plays to his acting strengths as James’ manager Ben Bart, while Brandon Smith puts in a memorable, colorful portrayal of Little Richard. Also look for The Office’s Craig Robinson as a leading – and very vocal – member of the band, Octavia Spencer as Aunt Honey (the woman who raised Brown when he was abandoned by both of his parents as a young boy) and Jill Scott as DeeDee Brown, a woman who manages to come across as strong and fiery even if the movie hints about Brown’s drug use, infidelities and spurts of unpredictable domestic violence.

All in all, I found Get On Up mesmerizing because of the music and the passion that went into making that music. James Brown was one of those rare artists who was able to reinvent himself to fit every era. Whether he’s Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, the King of Funk or the Godfather of Soul to you, there’s no denying the man belonged in the spotlight. It’s about time Hollywood gave him his due in the theatrical limelight. Now I’m just patiently waiting for a movie about Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke.

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300: Rise of an Empire makes its way to home video on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Digital Download, and if you missed seeing in theaters because you thought it was simply a re-do of the original 300, then now is the time to right that wrong. I won’t go too much into reviewing the movie itself because I already did that when it was in theaters. 300: Rise of an Empire isn’t so much a sequel or a prequel, but an equal (or side-quel, as many labeled it). The story takes place concurrently with the events in 300, and while this movie introduces us to another army and protagonists, led by Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) and Artemesia (Eva Green) respectively, we are still following characters from the original movie on the fringes, including Queen Gorgo (Lena Heady), Dilios (David Wenham), Daxos (Andrew Pleavin), and Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro).

The movie, however, truly belongs to Green who brings a fierce determination to Artemesia. Stapleton does a fine job as Themistokles, but he doesn’t have the same presence as Gerard Butler did in 300, and he’s completely upstaged by Green who dominates the movie. In fact, Artemesia is such a distinct character, the lone woman warrior in the gigantic battle, that the rest of the soldiers register simply as handsome, impossibly buff extras whose only function is to run, yell and die. Some of them do have personalities though, like the father and son fighting side-by-side, but Green’s performance is so powerful that you just want to see more of her when she’s not on screen. She single-handedly makes 300: Rise of an Empire a much more interesting, and better, movie than its predecessor.

The movie has more going for it as well, including amazing visuals and special effects, and all of that detail is present on the stunning Blu-ray presentation. The film is a blend of partial physical sets (some of the ships were constructed with a bow and stern with CGI filling in the rest) and green and blue screen trickery, but it’s hard to tell the real from the fake (which includes most of the blood erupting from the soldiers who must have really had some high blood pressure) on the screen. The Blu-ray retains infinite detail from flecks of dust and embers floating in the air to blood specks and stubble on the soldiers’ faces. The color palette is subdued, as intended, but there are bright splashes of red (naturally), gold and blue. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mix will give your home sound system a real workout with an active surround field and a booming, thundering bass from the subwoofer. This Blu-ray sets a new standard for reference quality. And if you have a 3D set-up at home, be sure to take advantage of that option. While the film was a post-conversion job instead of native 3D, the effect is still stunning for the most part with only a couple of minor problems in some of the wide shots. Overall, though, the 3D version is just as sharp and stunning as the 2D version.

The Blu-ray, while lacking any director or cast commentary track, is still packed with some terrific extras that take viewers behind-the-scenes of making the movie and gives us a historical perspective on the events depicted. The extras include:

Behind the Scenes: The 300 Effect

• 3 Days in Hell (7:08) — Cast and filmmakers explain how the idea originated for the movie, and how it ties into the original movie, including how characters crossed over between the two.
• Brutal Artistry (9:08) — Filmmakers discuss the look of the movie and how it compares and builds off of the original, and how the use of 3D enhanced the new movie.
• A New Breed of Hero (4:49) — A look at how Themistokles differs from Leonidas from a historical perspective.
• Taking the Battle to Sea (8:52) — Filmmakers discuss how advanced technology allowed them to make this movie that takes place on water without any water. Also, a look at the physical combat and how the actors used partial weapons that were completed with CGI to allow for deeper thrusts into an adversary’s body.

Featurette: Real Leaders & Legends (22:52) — An in-depth look at the historical characters and incidents which became a legend which became the basis for the fiction of both movies.
Featurette: Women Warriors (12:22) — Eva Green, Lena Heady, filmmakers and historians talk about the women’s roles in history and in the movie. (Some material is repeated from the previous featurette.)
Featurette: Savage Warships (10:36) — A look at the warships, historical and fictional.
Behind the Scenes: Becoming a Warrior (4:39) — A brief look at the physical training required of the actors.

300: Rise of an Empire is a thrilling, entertaining action flick that might seem geared towards a male audience (and the original movie definitely skewed that way), but the inclusion of Eva Green should bring female viewers to the party as well. It will be interesting to see if someone at the studio will one day consider cutting the two movies together to create one giant epic.

The home video release is available in several versions including a Blu-ray/DVD Combo, a Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD Combo (the DVD itself has no extra features), and a 2-disk DVD special edition with the bonus features from the Blu-ray included on the second DVD. All versions come with a Digital (DVD) and HD Digital (Blu-ray) Ultraviolet copy. Our thanks to Warner Home Entertainment for providing the Blu-ray 3D package for review.

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For a while now, vampires have been the go-to creatures on TV and in movies, from the classics Nosferatu and Dracula to the modern day versions in the Twilight saga and The Vampire Diaries. Vampires seem to be losing their (pun intended) bite, and werewolves are probably too costly a creature to build an entire TV series around (we’ll see if Syfy’s Canadian import Bitten gets picked up for a second season). So what better supernatural creatures to turn to than witches?

While there really hasn’t been a successful drama about witches on TV until American Horror Story: Coven, witches have fared a bit better in comedies like Bewitched and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. Even the campy soap Passions had a witch as a main character, but prime time dramas have seen little success as shows like Eastwick and The Secret Circle barely made it through a single season (Lifetime’s Witches of East End seems to have bucked the trend and will be getting a second season). But TV executives keep trying to make witches the next big thing, and WGN (fondly remembered as Chicago’s Superstation) is launching its own slate of original programming with the new drama Salem.

Salem, naturally, takes place in Salem, MA just at the start of the witch hunts. A few citizens have been put to death for practicing witchcraft, but the residents of the colony are still fearful that dark things are afoot. In the pilot, we meet John Alden (Shane West) and Mary (Janet Montgomery). They’re not married, and John is sent off to war unaware that Mary is with child … a fact that no one in the town can know lest she face the consequences of being branded with an A on her forehead. With the help Tituba (Ashley Madekwe), she participates in a ritual in the woods that mysteriously removes the baby from her body.

Believing John to be dead, Mary marries Salem’s richest man, George Sibley (Michael Mulheren), but is stunned when John returns. What John doesn’t know is that Mary’s experience in the woods that night and her relationship with Tituba has drawn her into the world of witchcraft. Mary has cast a spell on George that has him incapacitated for the most part, and when a young girl becomes the target of demons, she nearly implicates Mary as the witch who brought the demons upon her. Instead, Mary uses her power to deflect the blame onto a man (Kevin Tighe) who knows all of her secrets … and he ends up crushed when he refuses to confirm or deny his involvement.

The town’s crusading witch hunter Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel) has the townspeople whipped into a frenzy as they believe anyone, including their friends and neighbors, could be practicing the dark arts. While Mather appears to be a holy crusader on the outside, he has a few secrets of his own, like “attending” to the less fortunate at a local house of ill repute. We’re also introduced to other characters like Magistrate Hale (Xander Berkeley), Mercy Lewis and Abigail Cook, all historical figures at the time of the witch hysteria (although the real Abigail’s last name was Williams).

The pilot episode quickly sets up the situation, but perhaps tips its hand too soon in revealing who in Salem are actively involved in witchcraft … and yes, the witchcraft in the story is very real, not the imagined hysteria of the real colonists attributed to isolationism and religious extremism. John is originally presented as the town’s skeptic, believing there are more earthly forces at work than supernatural, but it doesn’t take him long to see that there are darker forces in town when he witnesses some bizarre goings-on in the woods.

Early reviews of Salem have been tepid at best, but I found the pilot to be interesting enough to give it another shot. The fan base that Shane West brings from Nikita coupled with the Seth Gabel (Fringe) devotees should help make the show a success. The pilot is also handsomely produced, giving the town of Salem an appropriately 17th-century vibe (it’s also interesting to note how the town changes and grows over the seven years while John is away). The cast is a mixed bag of acting, from completely focused to gnawing on the scenery. Gabel gets to be the most over-the-top, but his Reverend Mather is supposed to be a complete zealot, so it works. He really brings some much needed sparks to the proceedings.

A television series is always hard to judge from its pilot, especially a completely new series where we have to get to know all of the character but at least we should know a bit about the historical basis for the plot. Some may cry foul that they play fast and loose with a terrible time in history for entertainment value, but this isn’t a documentary … and none of the participants are around to object. I found Salem to be entertaining and intriguing, much more serious than AHS: Coven ever was, with just enough weirdness to bring me back for more. For now, the show has me under its spell.

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We’ve all seen movies featuring sentient computers: 2001: A Space Odyssey, WarGames, Eagle Eye, Demon Seed, Colossus: The Forbin Project, TRON, and of course the Terminator movies. And we all know how badly things usually go once the computers become more intelligent and “alive” than their human counterparts. But what would happen if a human’s intelligence and essence were to be uploaded into a super computer?

That’s the question posed by the new sci-fi thriller Transcendence. Johnny Depp stars as a computer genius who has helped develop a supercomputer known as PINN, a creation that is as “alive” as a machine can be. But a fringe group of techno-terrorists believe that PINN and other pieces of technology like it threaten our very being on the planet (kind of like The Terminator‘s SkyNet), so they bomb several computer labs and attempt to assassinate Depp’s Dr. Caster. He doesn’t die from the shooting, but it turns out the bullet was laced with radioactive material that was detected too late to save him, so his wife decides to take the PINN project one step further and upload her husband onto the hard drives. What could possibly go wrong?

I want to say Transcendence is an amazing piece of speculative science fiction brought to us by producer Christopher Nolan and directed by Nolan’s long-time cinematographer Wally Pfister … but I can’t. Transcendence is a supremely stupid movie, made all the more maddening by gigantic plot holes and a complete disregard for any sense of time. Oh, and any suspense the movie may have had – will the computer take over the world or will they stop it – is non-existent because THE MOVIE STARTS AT THE END! It’s all a flashback, so we know the outcome before the story even starts. The movie becomes a complete waste of time at that point.

And Johnny Depp must have felt the same way because he looks supremely bored during the entire movie. Yes, he’s dead and what we see is a visual representation of his character on all of the video screens, but what is supposed to be his mechanical coolness just comes off as “I’m here to collect a paycheck.” This movie demonstrates very well why computers like HAL 9000, Colossus and Her‘s Samantha are so much more effective – we don’t see the actors doing the voices. Intonation is much more effective when there isn’t a face with a blank expression. I think Depp was so bored that he kept screwing around with an accent that never materialized fully, but it must have kept him entertained.

The rest of the cast isn’t much better. Morgan Freeman could be playing a slightly more bewildered version of Lucius Fox and Rebecca Hall seems to have one blank expression throughout the movie. Paul Bettany is the only lead who actually gives anything resembling a performance. Then there’s that time issue I mentioned earlier. We know the flashback takes place five years earlier from the end of the movie. But things happen, like a massive, massive underground facility with miles and miles of solar panels above ground is constructed in what seems to be a few weeks. I don’t think even a supercomputer has that ability, even when it’s giving the local residents of an almost ghost town in the middle of the desert superhuman abilities. (Nanobots!) Did I mention this movie is stupid? And to make matters worse, the script is by newcomer Jack Paglen who has been tapped to write the new theatrical Battlestar Galactica reboot! Frack!

Pfister did not serve as his own cinematographer, but the film looks fine. In fact, it’s all a bit Nolan-y right down to the final “what the hell” shot that cuts to black right before the credits roll. It reminded me just a bit too much of that final shot from Inception. I can understand Nolan’s influence on Pfister, but there’s a fine line between imitation and plagiarism. Pfister pretty much copies Nolan’s style with a script that Nolan would have tossed into the nearest waste basket. It could have been a terrific movie if the concept had just been fleshed out a bit more and had we not been asked to just accept all of the massive leaps in logic. And if they hadn’t given away the end at the beginning! With all of the talent involved, the final product simply does not compute.

If you’re like me, then your Facebook feed has been flooded with opinions on A&E’s decision to suspend Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson after he made anti-gay remarks to GQ. Several people agreed, citing the need for tolerance; several people disagreed, saying that no one should be surprised that Robertson, an old school Southern Christian, believes homosexuality is a sin. These reactions don’t surprise me. The ones that baffle me though, are the ones that claim A&E doesn’t have the right to suspend him, that they’re trampling over Robertson’s right to free speech.

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,” meaning that your speech can only constitutionally be infringed by the government — not by a basic cable channel. Second, Phil Robertson is a brand. The “Robertson Clan” is a brand. Duck Dynasty is a brand, and A&E is simply doing what any corporation would do: it’s protecting its brand.

This is evidenced in the wording of A&E’s statement about the suspension: “We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty.” What is A&E saying? That Phil Robertson the person is in no way reflected in Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Robertson Clan on the hit A&E show, Duck Dynasty. Phil Robertson the person can have beliefs. He can burp, fart, hate gays, believe in unicorns, or do whatever he wants — in private. However, the second a camera or a reporter is in the room with him, Phil Robertson the person disappears. He is Phil Robertson the brand.

“But he still lives in his original house! He hasn’t sold out like the rest of the family!” Robertson may not have given in to many of the trappings that his progeny enjoy, but make no mistake: he is just as involved as the rest. He accepts money to appear on the show. He says the scripted lines the producers give him. He participates in the sitcom-like antics that are Duck Dynasty‘s hallmark. He chopped down a Christmas tree with Miss Kay months before Christmas because A&E needed to film a special (which went on to garner over 9 million viewers). Phil Robertson’s face appears on body pillows, door mats, alarm clocks, basically anything you can think of. Walmart.com alone has over 20 pages of Duck Dynasty merchandise. There are a lot of paydays tied up in his folksy wisdom, and the cash cow needs to stay in his pen.

The fact of the matter is, what you say and do can affect your job. Don Yelton was fired from his job as North Carolina GOP Chair after making racist remarks on The Daily Show; Big Brother contestants left the show only to lose their real world jobs after making homophobic and racist comments during filming. Paula Deen, Don Imus; public figures often face firing and financial hardship after a scandal like this. A&E in particular is once bitten, twice shy after having to deal with advertisers pulling out after Dog the Bounty Hunter went on a racist rant in 2007.

Ming Chen, one of the stars of AMC’s Comic Book Men, is surprised that Robertson’s comments even got out. “When we give interviews for the show, we usually have a PR person who dials in and listens to the call,” Chen told us at CliqueClack. “GQ had to have gone through the network to talk to [Robertson], so I’m surprised it even got this far.” He says that reality stars are different from actors, because “who you see on the show is who we are. I’ll speak honestly [in interviews]; I speak from the heart.” While he says that his network has never given guidelines of what he and his fellow Comic Book Men can and can’t say, he does say that they’re “expected to use common sense.”

In a show that’s seemingly tightly controlled, it is odd that one of the Duck Dynasty stars was even able to go rogue like this; that no one was on hand during the interview to make sure Robertson exercised the common sense needed to protect the Robertson brand. After all, it’s not the remarks themselves that are surprising. As Chen said, and many people have echoed online, “That’s real. It’s what he really feels, so I don’t get why people are so shocked by the content.” However, the reality we see on Duck Dynasty is a carefully-constructed one.

A&E is intent on cultivating a genteel version of rednecks; a faith-focused, family-oriented group that gets into wacky misadventures in the swamps of Louisiana. The Robertsons are portrayed as a sitcom family; one-dimensional and happy. A&E doesn’t want its millions of viewers to look below the surface, to find the “real” in their reality. Their goal is to keep viewers entertained between toothpaste commercials, so when someone threatens that, he has to be dealt with.

It’s nothing personal Phil; it’s just business.

Here are the TV and Movie DVD deals at Amazon.com for Sunday, December 1, 2013 and at what times the deals start. Make sure you head over when the deal starts, or you could miss out. The below list is clickable. Come back and let us know what you get yourself your loved ones:

• Chuck: The Complete Series – Collector Set at $62.99 (12:20 am PT)
• Chuck: The Complete Series – Collector Set Blu-ray at $71.69 (12:20 am PT)
• Fringe: The Complete Series at $59.89 (12:20 am PT)
• Fringe: The Complete Series Blu-ray at $72.59 (12:20 am PT)
• RVBX: Ten Years of Red Vs. Blue Box Set at $46.99 (12:20 am PT)
• RVBX: Ten Years of Red vs. Blue Box Set Blu-ray at $56.49 (12:20 am PT)
• Cracker: The Complete Collection at $49.49 (6:20 am PT)
• Lost in Translation at $6.49 (6:20 am PT)
• Ripper Street at $14.89 (6:20 am PT)
• Ripper Street Blu-ray at $15.99 (6:20 am PT)
• Stoney Burke – The Complete Series at $15.99 (6:20 am PT)
• Shallow Grave (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $17.99 (6:20 am PT)
• A Christmas Story at $7.89 (8:20 am PT)
• Call the Midwife: Season One at $15.99 (8:20 am PT)
• Call the Midwife: Season Two at $17.99 (8:20 am PT)
• Call the Midwife: Season Two Blu-ray at $20.99 (8:20 am PT)
• Carlos (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $20.89 (8:20 am PT)
• Quadrophenia (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $17.49 (8:20 am PT)
• Henry Fonda: Film Collection at $19.99 (12:20 pm PT)
• Millennium: The Complete DVD Collection at $26.69 (12:20 pm PT)
• The Blue Planet: Seas of Life at $16.99 (12:20 pm PT)
• Tyler Perry – The Plays at $35.49 (12:20 pm PT)
• Underdog: The Complete Series at $24.49 (12:20 pm PT)
• 12 Angry Men (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $17.89 (12:20 pm PT)
• Frasier: The Complete Series at $80.49 (4:20 pm PT)
• NFL Super Bowl XLVII Champions: 2012 Baltimore Ravens at $10.49 (4:20 pm PT)
• Street Kings 1&2 at $11.49 (4:20 pm PT)
• The Santa Clause 3-Movie Collection at $25.59 (4:20 pm PT)
• The Samurai Trilogy (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $28.49 (4:20 pm PT)
• Prometheus/Alien at $11.49 (4:20 pm PT)
• John Wayne Film Collection at $17.99 (8:20 pm PT)
• Pixar Short Films Collection 2 at $15.89 (8:20 pm PT)
• Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales: The Complete Collection at $20.49 (8:20 pm PT)
• Fanny and Alexander at $24.99 (8:20 pm PT)
• Weekend (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] at $17.99 (8:20 pm PT)

The 2013 Fox fall season is off and running with the premiere of Sleepy Hollow from a bevy of producers including Alex Kurtzman (Fringe), Robert Orci (Xena, Alias, Fringe) and Len Wiseman (the Underworld films), who also directed the pilot. I think, though, that the show was sold as kind of a police procedural with a fish out of water, Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), somehow transported 250 years into the future — our present — to help solve crimes. And deal with that pesky Headless Horseman. But it turned out to be much more than I bargained for … but probably should have expected considering the pedigree behind it.

Whereas I thought the show was going to be “CSI: Sleepy Hollow,” it’s actually more like a cousin to Supernatural, especially when you see the preview for what’s coming this season. What this definitely isn’t is Washington Irving’s tale of Ichabod Crane. In the original story, Crane is a schoolmaster in 1790 who is trying to win the affections of socialite Katrina Van Tassel, who also has another suitor in Abraham Van Brunt, aka “Brom Bones.” Failing to win Katina’s hand, Crane returns home after a night of ghost stories that play on his imagination. He is confronted by a headless horseman (who hurls his detached noggin at Crane) and never seen again. It’s implied the horseman was Brom as the only things found in the woods are a smashed pumpkin, his horse and a trampled saddle. The locals believe Crane was taken by the evil spirits in the forest.

The very, very basics of the story are present in the series, but Crane is no longer a nervous school teacher (as portrayed not long ago by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow). Now he is actually a Brit who switched sides during the Revolutionary War (which sets the story back a couple of decades) and became a spy for General George Washington. Crane beheads a large man dressed as a Redcoat, wearing a strange black mask and with an odd brand on his hand. The Redcoat also succeed in inflicting a fatal wound to Crane, but other forces come into play as Crane awakens in a cave, digging himself out of a shallow grave and into the world of the present. But he’s not alone as the Headless Horseman has followed.

And here’s where things get even more strange. After several decapitations, most notably of the big name guest stars, the town’s police force (led by Orlando Jones) begins to believe that Crane is not the killer, especially when he’s in the custody of Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) at the time of the murder of a local reverend … who Crane somehow recognizes from 1776. Crane is committed to a mental hospital for observation, but is visited by his wife Katrina (yes, that Katrina) in a dream or vision and it’s revealed that this is not going where we thought it was going.

Turns out Katrina was tried and burned as a witch, the police chief (Clancy Brown) had hidden away files of investigations into supernatural occurrences in Sleepy Hollow, and the Headless Horseman in the Redcoat uniform was actually Death himself, preparing for the coming of the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse! Now, instead of a police procedural, Sleepy Hollow has become a battle against good and evil in an attempt to stave off the end of the world. My interest level in the show certainly spiked at this point, and the previews of various demons and monsters to come will have me glued to the TV as long as they can keep it interesting. The Winchester boys have put the Apocalypse on hold once already, so now it looks like the future of the world is in the hands of one Ichabod Crane.

The pilot episode has set up the series’ mythology pretty well, just giving us enough enticing morsels to keep us coming back for more, and have hinted through a line of dialogue that there is a seven season plan in the works. Will the show actually survive that long? I believe it does have a shot, especially since Fox didn’t stick it in the Friday death slot. The main cast is engaging even if Mison’s Crane is a little too aware of the world around him. Some comments about Lt. Mills being a black female officer … and an emancipated one at that … could have been eyebrow-raising, but Beharie’s response to the potentially sexist and racist comment defused the situation. While Crane is still unfamiliar with the modern gadgets that surround him, and how the town has changed in 250 years (asking if there is a law that requires a Starbucks on every corner!), he’s not quite the complete fish out of water that I expected. He seems to fit right in, even though he’s still dressed in 1776 garb by the end of the episode, and is still fascinated with the power windows in Mills’ vehicle.

I like Beharie’s sass, and the episode revealed that Mills also has a sister and they are all connected to Crane by the same vision of the Four Horsemen. Mills and Crane are pretty much the Sam and Dean of the show. Jones is the stereotypical skeptic, but as heads keep rolling he has no choice to but allow Mills and Crane work together. We’ll see how long he’ll remain skeptical. I can see him becoming the Broyles of the show (fitting coming from the Fringe team). We haven’t met many other regular cast members as most of the supporting players were dispatched in the pilot, but we can assume we’ll see Katrina as a recurring character to deliver more clues to Ichabod, as well as Abbie’s sister.

Production design on the show was spectacular, with the town of Sleepy Hollow having a real New England feel to it and some beautiful aerial shots of the town … even though the series is filmed in North Carolina. The Headless Horseman is also very well done, looking proportioned properly (not just built up shoulders to hide the stuntman’s head underneath the costume), and the beheadings are handled tastefully and without a ton of blood (the blade is apparently heated — as the Horseman is a demon — so that the wounds are instantly cauterized), but still manage to make you gasp when one happens on camera.

Once the show revealed itself to be more of a supernatural thriller than oddball police show, I was hooked. If they do have a seven year plan mapped out with a beginning, middle and end then, based on the pilot, I’m ready to immerse myself in this world to see how it all plays out. The question is, will this be another Fringe-like show on Fox with a small but loyal following, or will the masses tune in to see if the world will be saved in seven years’ time? What do you think?

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TV and film companion novels have always been a mixed bag. Some are great additions to the mythos of a world, adding nuance and back story for fans hungry for “more.” Most, sadly, are none of those things. Writing a good book is a difficult enough task in and of itself; trying to fit a story into an existing world and include the proper amount of fan service makes it damn near impossible.

Fringe: The Burning Man tells the story of a young Olivia Dunham. The bulk of the story is centered during her teens, but there are a couple of chapters at the beginning and end of the novel that cover younger days and the beginning of her time with the FBI. Fans of the show know the woman that Olivia becomes, and the arc that The Burning Man theoretically might be more a part of that history than the cortexiphan trials that made her “special.”

I’m not saying that a story with Olivia needs Walter or Peter to be good (and neither would Peter or Walter’s story need the others). But an interesting and compelling story, The Burning Man is not. I was never a fan when Fringe took the fringe science to the extreme, and we get that in spades here. Also, the story was a bit discombobulated, jumping back and forth between different arcs and antagonists. If you were to ask me what exactly what the novel was really about, the best I could come up with is, “Olivia had a really crappy childhood.”

I don’t doubt that author Christa Faust is talented; she’s a multiple award-winning novelist with a nice bit of variety on her resume. But there’s nothing about A Burning Man that makes me want to pick up the other books in the series, The Zodiac Paradox (Walter’s novel, on bookshelves now) or Sins of the Father (Peter, due out on November 5^th). I have much higher hopes for the recently announced Veronica Mars companion novels; hopefully I won’t be as disappointed as I was here.

(The preceding piece was based on a complimentary copy provided to CliqueClack for the purpose of review.)

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With this week’s TV on DVD and Blu-ray home video releases, we bid one final farewell to Fringe, 30 Rock and Private Practice. The most recent seasons of Flashpoint, Royal Pains and Rookie Blue also make their home video debuts, and reality TV is represented with Cake Boss and Gold Rush. The recent TV movie remake of Steel Magnolias comes home this week, Doctor Who’s sidekick K-9 gets a full series release, another season of The Dick Van Dyke Show comes to Blu-ray, Warner Brothers celebrates the TV legacy of Superman to tie in with the new Man of Steel movie, and BBC celebrates the 75th anniversary of The Great Gatsby to tie in with the new movie. To see all of the home video releases coming on May 7, have a look at our shopper’s guide and click on a link to make a purchase or to get more information. Each purchase you make through a link also helps support our efforts here at CliqueClack, and we thank you for that support.

It’s a light week for new TV on DVD releases, but there are a few things of interest. The History Channel’s controversial The Bible mini-series, produced by Mark Burnett (Survivor) and his wife Roma Downey, comes to video just days after concluding its run on TV. Also coming to home video is AMC’s second season of The Killing, in anticipation of the surprise third season set to debut in June. Fringe fans who miss seeing John Noble on their screens every week can pick up his Science Channel series, Dark Matters, where he still uses his Walter Bishop voice instead of his own Aussie accented one. To see these and the rest of the TV shows coming to home video April 2nd, have a look at our shopper’s guide and click on a link to get more information or to make a purchase.