It's a New Year, and a new chance to get it right. You've stumbled through this abbreviated work week, cranky and desperate to find your rhythm again, but it will soon be over, and now you'll have an entire weekend to recharge and rebuild. You might even get to work on some of those New Year's resolutions you were so adamant about three days ago–toss out the Christmas cookies, crumple your last pack of cigarettes, and sign up for the gym. But hey, why bother? The rest of the world is still full of the same death, drudgery, and disappointment. Same shit, different year, am I right? As always, the proof is in the Buzzkills.
– In this interesting/depressing article from EW.com, columnist Mark Harris uses I Am Legend as a launching point for a fairly convincing essay on how modern science-fiction appears to be completely out of ideas, with projects like Battlestar Galactica and J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot (we've mentioned that before, right?) all recycling concepts that are at least 30 years old. "It's one thing to revere and refresh a genre's history," Harris says. "It's another to live obsessively in the past, especially if science fiction's whole purpose is to extrapolate elements from today's world to create a future we've never imagined." Harris believes sci-fi "desperately needs filmmakers who are interested in bending the form toward their own passions and obsessions as artists." [Insert stock self-referential Judd Apatow gag.] In the meantime, of course, we have this to look forward to.
– Speaking of total creative bankruptcy, A&E; has ordered a second season of the mostly scripted, manipulative trainwreck known as The Two Coreys, despite the fact that last season supposedly saw the dissolution of their lifelong friendship. For his part, Feldman avers, "If we do come back, the next season will have to be darker, edgier, and more real because that's where it's at." Um, OK. But will it still be dull as fuck?
– Landmark Communications has reportedly put The Weather Channel (along with its associated Weather.com website) up for sale to the highest bidder. Scariest of all? News Corp. is expected to make a play for it, which means that Rupert Murdoch, the Katamari Damacy of media, may soon control the weather. ("Strong winds in the Bay Area tonight, as God continues to punish homosexuals. And now the skiers' forecast.")
– The celebrity guest DJ trend officially hit a new, basso profundo, "Old Man River" low with the announcement that Amy Fisher will be "hitting the turntables" tonight in Manhattan. The former "Long Island Lolita" will apparently spin in front of live video of her own sex tape, which is all part of her plan to market the shit out of it and embarrass her children for life.
– Two sad deaths this week: George MacDonald Fraser, British author of both historical fiction and non-fiction works, died Wednesday at the age of 82. Fraser is best known for his long-running Flashman series, which purports to be the memoirs of a former British Army soldier. Also, Disney artist Joyce Carlson, who worked on such films as Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty, has died at the age of 84. Carlson is best known for her role in creating the It's A Small World ride–which we recently reported was undergoing a redesign to accommodate fat-ass Americans–and we can only hope that, if there is an afterlife, she went to the one where they don't play that song.
Have a super weekend!
[Friday Buzzkills will return in two weeks.]