* Alan Moore hates Hollywood in general and the Watchmen adaptation in particular. I’m with Tom Spurgeon in that Moore should be applauded for his stance regarding his own shoddy treatment by his former publisher and the way his books have been dumbed down by the studios and filmmakers heretofore in charge of adapting them; moreover, I’d take Moore thumbing his nose at the whole Hollywood game over Mark Millar claiming to star opposite Megan Fox’s Lois Lane in the next Superman movie anyday. However, decrying Hollywood filmmaking in general–there’s no other way to put this–is ignorant and poseurish, like the people who sit around saying “oh, I don’t watch television” in this the New Golden Age of Television. There are plenty of shitty Hollywood movies, but there are plenty of shitty everything. There are plenty of shitty Alan Moore comics, in fact. But I’m not going to throw out the A Small Killing with the Violator anymore than I’m going to throw out, oh I don’t know, the Lord of the Rings with the Transformers. Alan Moore’s too smart to be as close-minded as he always comes across when he leaps from specifically commenting on his own misfortunes to a poorly thought through institutional critique. (Full disclosure: I liked Dawn of the Dead and 300 so I’m going to assume I’ll like Watchmen, too, but I’d say the same thing about Moore’s overall stance even if Joel Schumacher were in charge of the movie.)
* Grant Morrison lists his favorite Superman stories and moments. (Via Spurge.)
* One more Spurge-tastic link: Tom reviews the latest under-the-radar interesting Marvel comic, The Incredible Hercules.
* My friend Chris Ward at Joystick Division has a grand ol’ time making fun of a 1990s guide to how video games are made.
* Apparently this is the kind of thing you can find in Josh Cotter’s sketchbooks. Holy frijoles.
Dude, I like America’s Next Top Model too, but New Golden Age?
During this decade, you could flip on your television and watch The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, The Shield, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, The Office (UK & USA), The Daily Show, The Colbert Report…I’m not vouching for each and every one of those shows, and obviously there’s a lot of junk out there too, but among those you’ve got several of the best dramas in history and maybe a for-the-ages comedy or two as well. That’s a pretty high concentration of quality, and I’m probably forgetting a ton of stuff too.
You forgot JAG.
And don’t forget The Simple Life and The Flavor of Love.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times? Point is, God gave you a remote control for a reason.
Maybe there’s some sort of Balance of Television Quality and Suckitude in effect. The better the best shows get, the more likely it is that the worst shows are astoundingly bad. Perhaps the upper and lower limits are pushed in direct proportion to one another. You can’t have a Deadwood without somebody making not one, not two, but THREE seasons of Temptation Island.