Monday, September 7, 2009

Wha???

Ok, I've had extra free time lately but not free motivation.

I was looking for something to put on in the background, something to throw in the upper-right corner of my screen as I surfed the interwebs. I confess: I'm a sci-fi geek. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far in 1999-or-so, I remembered watching a few episodes of The Invisible Man, a B-show on the Sci-Fi (NOT the SyFy) network that didn't make it past the first few seasons. Funny thing: Hulu.com has the whole run available, free.

It's got some interesting bits going for it, though I can't say that I would have kept it running.

The closest comparison I can fathom is Joss Whedon. It is an irreverent tale of an inmate-turned-super-agent thanks to a bio-somethingicall gland that allows him to turn invisible. The catch? If he doesn't get continuous dosages or CounterAgent (I always see it capitalized, in CamelCase, when I hear it), he turns psycho. Hence the government job.

There's a lot of typical spy story thrown in, except that it feels that the writers had nothing but contempt for spy stories. You have the The Agency (operating under the guise of the Department of Fish and Game) facing off with The Organization, the hero telling his nemysis that he's absurd for overcomplicated plans, the real experienced agent - short, bald and rightfully paranoid. Perhaps imagine Seth Rogan writing a spy series and you get a pretty good idea.

And that's where it stops. It's fun, it's watchable and each episode has at least one really good joke. More than that? It's no classic, it's nothing special and it's no Joss Whedon. Watch it for something in the background. Watch it to learn how to lampoon a genre. Watch it to...to...

Just don't watch it if you have something better to do.

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