episode was evil to male viewers worldwide because we had to watch her seduce some not-too-attractive guy who was just incredibly lucky to be in the right place at exactly the right time

See, that annoyed me not just for the whole facepalm thing about Max's sex drive anyway, but also because of this. Everyone was all "Ick! Coyote Ugly! Ick!" about the bloke, and he was cute, damn it. I mean, okay, marginally less plastic looking than the various musclebound Manticore-made chaps, or the pretty guy in the wheelchair, but still cute. I mean, it turned out that he was a bit of a twit, but everyone's initial judgements were totally based on the fact that he was supposed to be a minger. And - he wasn't. What would have been funny was if they HAD cast someone genuinely unbeautiful.

('course, I fancied Normal as much as pretty whatchamacallim in the wheelchair, and the various Manticore-made boys not at all, so possibly I'm not their target audience after all.)

Were there episodes called "Claws" and "Fur" and "Kitty" and "Purina"?

Spits coffee on cat.

Um. Don't think so. Nor Fleas nor Furball. More's the pity.

Who was the actor playing the normal guy?

Everyone was all "Ick! Coyote Ugly! Ick!" about the bloke, and he was cute, damn it.

I didn't think he was ugly, actually. At all. Just close enough to real looking that I could imagine myself in his place. I'm not ugly, either. But that is why it was mean, because if Jessica Alba is sleeping with guys whose hotness scale puts them yards above my league, then all is okay, but if I'm within spitting distance then I get jealous.

Sensible? No.

pretty whatchamacallim in the wheelchair

Logan.

A name I have never run into in real life, but that appears with alarming regularity attached to Sexy Sexy TeeVee Boys.

And, oddly, the new hyper-affordable car from Renault. [link] I don't know why they picked the name "Logan" but I suspect it's more for Logan's Run than Wolverine.

Cable in the states has commercials now also, but it originally didn't, and that was supposed to be the whole point. Just like broadcast TV didn't originally have commercials during the show, but before and after only. As viewers get used to commercials, providers of TV or movies start packing in more and more. We could conceivably see a day where movie theaters stop the film for an intermission to show commercials. (Which, with the new longer movies, would be justified as a bathroom break.)

The economics of the movie theater industry are flawed...the studios are charging too much for the theaters to rent the movies, apparently, thus the move towards theater conglomerates. These conglomerates started so that they could develop relations with studios - AMC used to get Columbia/Tri-Star movies cheaper (I think it was C/T-S). Might still be the case, I dunno.

I wonder what would happen if theaters charged more for opening night, and then a bit less for opening weekend, and then a bit less for the first two weeks, and then dropped the price substantially? Theater-goers would squawk initially, but I'm sure it would catch on pretty fast, as there are indefinable benefits to seeing a movie early into its release. And theaters already have premium pricing for evening shows vs. matinee shows. Also, I wonder if charging a premium for reserved seats will catch on - once the new theater in Fairfax offered this, it's all we did. My DH wouldn't go otherwise.

This all goes counter to the American belief that movies are proletariat entertainment, of course. So maybe the commercials are the price we have to pay to keep movies for the masses, and still let the studios make ungodly amounts of profit (except, there's never any profit). I mean, I have no problem with profit-making, that's the whole point. But it seems to me that the studio executives have found ways to maximize their profit beyond the actual market level, and these ways ultimately hurt the end consumer. Sort of like Microsoft.

(waits for counterpoint from ita)

A source tells Pagesix.com the mutant will be, "An unbelievably hot and sexy hooker. Her super power is that she secretes a pheromone that helps her to seduce men. She can seduce anyone."

Smallville already did this storyline. Fairly well, too. (Well for SV, anyway.)

I wonder what would happen if theaters charged more for opening night, and then a bit less for opening weekend, and then a bit less for the first two weeks, and then dropped the price substantially?

That kinda sorta happens, in between first run theaters (that have the movies when they first come out) and the dollar (or, nowadays, $3.00) theaters that get the movies a few weeks later. I can see Batman Begins for $3.50 now, about the price of renting the DVD when it comes out, if I don't mind going to Kernersville, NC to do it.

That's my Batman. That's my motherfucking Batman.

That's exactly what I said as l left teh theater yesterday.

As plate of shrimp go, it's not really astounding, but I'll take it.

I had forgotten abotu the possibility of seeing the Serenity trailer on the big screen. Glorious!

Smallville already did this storyline. Fairly well, too. (Well for SV, anyway.)

Oh yeah! Wasn't that the one where Jonathan got seduced? I can't really remember, because SV has had like fifty thousand storylines where people are either possessed or controlled or seduced or anything at all that allows their actions to be completely without reproach, thereby giving the appearance of character development without actually developing characters.

A source tells Pagesix.com the mutant will be, "An unbelievably hot and sexy hooker. Her super power is that she secretes a pheromone that helps her to seduce men. She can seduce anyone."

This is also in the book Altered Carbon. Did we need a new mutant created for this? No. Did they think Mystique, Rogue, and Jean Grey weren't packing enough sex appeal to put butts in seats? (leaving out BerryStorm on purpose)

I have been seeing too many damn tie-in commercials for Fantastic Four over the weekend, especially those stupid Amazon gift card ads. Considering that I am not a comic book reader, I've never even heard of the Fantastic Four before the movie info came out, so I have no desire to see this film whatsoever, and these ads are just irritating me.

I wish that tie-in ads would be either much more subtle (like the Verizon contest tie in for RotK), or really blatant (along the lines of the hyperactive Buzz Lightyear commercial in the first Toy Story movie, voiced by Penn). This in between shit is just crazy making for me, because I can't ignore it nor can I mock it--I can only endure it.