Spartacus - every year this panel gets better and better

Every year the Spartacus panel manages to be more fun, and more entertaining than the year before. They pull of this marvelous feat while not only tempting you with what lays ahead on their show, but also taking moments to pay tribute to Andy Whitfield who played Spartacus in their first season before dying of cancer. Through their support of their friends memory, and in the case of Liam McIntyre the memory of the man whose role he came to fill, they show a gladiators strength and committment, and keep the panel rolling forward, letting those be moments of courage and might, not something that bogs them down but rather encourages and inspires.

 

 The panel is far from all serious, whether it is Manu persuading Liam to confess that they came virtually straight from the set to the airport, and as a result he had not managed to get all of his blood and guts make-up washed off before boarding their aircraft, so when moist towels were handed out for cleaning their hands and Liam used it to dab at his face -- his came away pink, and a very embarrased had to return what looked like a bloody rag to the stewardess, or Liam urging Manu to demonstrate for the audience the Mauri dance he does as a farewell for cast members when they leave the show, this panel is full of high spirits and moments that keep the audience both engrossed and on the edge of their seats, unsure what is coming next.


With Starz having announced this will be the final season of Spartacus they brought out Lucy Lawless to join the guys on stage. It was clearly a new phase of the panel, but there was still one more phase to come. To thank the fans who had made it to the panel for all their loyal viewership, they flew in from New Zealand ll of the Spartacus actors, including some 'dead characters' for last one time on stage.

Full cast appearances are, in general, one of the highlights of Comic-Con, and one of those rare experiences fans both look forward to and appreciate. For a show to do it when they know this will be their final season, and to bring actors who have no more filming ahead of them was a true nod to those who have been watching, a sign of appreciation that those around me could not stop marveling at.

Falling Skies -- Stop Looking At Me Like That!

There are some panels at Comic-Con that you walk out of thinking there was that one stand-out moment, and that's it, but what a moment! The Falling Skies panel was not that kind of panel.
Wil Wheaton was on hand to moderate, and while it was a tad disconcerting at first when he posed many of his questions to the actors in the form of "how do you think your character felt about...?" or "how do you think your character is going to move forward." that was mostly because it was such a different phrasing and approach to how many of the other tv panels had been done that day, so a moment was needed to adjust. However, when one of the behind-the-scenes folks from the show made a comment about red-shirts (in the context of whether or not Falling Skies would have any characters who were red-shirts in the coming season) Wil Wheaton's reaction was positively hilarious, and without a doubt, scene stealing, he was, after all, as he pointed out, the on the scene authority on red shirts, having starred on a Star Trek series! The audience members around me who had seemed a tad leary of Wil Wheaton moderating were suddenly sounding like die hard Wil Wheaton fans, and the turn around in their asides was, to say the least, entertaining.

But what 'stole the show' so to speak, was the way Will Patton (Captain Weaver) kept tossing glares at actor Connor Jessup (Ben) throughout the panel, every time the concepts of trust and aliens came up. It was both priceless and hilarious, especially when it started seemingly to unnerve Connor Jessup slightly and had him asking Will Patton to quit it. Moon Bloodgood confessed that her character and Noah Wylies would, finally, be moving their relationship that all important step forward, but it is hard to consider that much of a spoiler when the show has so clearly been heading in that direction since the pilot. Rather, it might be better stated that Falling Skies has spent every episode building a sense of community to the point that the audience cheers along side the characters for their victories and mourns alongside them in their losses.

Through their particulary strong creation of that sense of community, the show Falling Skies made me realize that it was that very sense of cohesion and community that a few shows I have felt disappointed by in the past were missing. Yet while watching those shows I could not place my finger on what it was they lacked, I simply felt some subtle touch lacking -- and yet, in Falling Skies whether it is when a scene has the camera moving down the line as trucks are being loaded catching snippets of conversation, or is moving down the chow line as people are serving plates, catching bits and pieces of interaction of friends and family, former strangers who are now interdependent neighbors, the show has relayed to their viewers that sense of tightness and community that I wish others had managed to have give me even half as well. There was joy on the faces of these actors as they talked about their craft, and their plotlines with the fans who had gathered to listen. Leading me to wonder if another layer of that sense of community that the audience feels when watching the show doesn't also come through simply from the fact these actors so clearly enjoyed working together.

Cult - Robert Knepper's Cult is Well Worth Joining!

Clicking photos in this article may lead to spoilers for the Cult

There are times when you watch a tv show and think 'been there, done that' -- Cult, a new show coming on cw mid-season is not one of those shows.
It's a bit of a creepy thriller, if you take the time to think and wonder if it could be real. And there is a great deal of potential for cross promotion and interactivity, from this show where the plot contains a show within the show, and fans who think that show within the show, might be real, or tied to reality in some very real way.

Robert Knepper (Prison Break's T-Bag, Heroes' Samuel Sullivan and Stargate Universe's Simeon) is at his charismatic best as Cult Leader Billy Grimm. As a special treat for the audience, before being properly introduced and coming out a video was played that Robert Knepper had pre-recorded, in character as Billy Grimm. It was an intense piece in which he implored the audience not to believe the liar who was about to come on stage -- the actor who played him, but was not him. It was a short piece, that was not a 'must do' by any means, and yet Robert Knepper had

played it so beautifully that an audience already eager to join Billy Grimm's cult having just seen the pilot wanted to leap from their seats when Robert Knepper came onto the platform. This ability to so completely embrace his character, and capture that charisma required to make the audience believe members of a cult would gather around him, follow him, and rally in support of him is pivotal in making or breaking a show like this -- and Robert Knepper showed both during the pilot, and during his appearance at Comic-Con that he had all those pieces of the character in place, without being over-the-top, without being creepy, without being the Robert Knepper we knew and recognized from Heroes, Prison Break and Stargate Universe.

It is inevitable at Comic-Con that people who want to get in to a panel for what is is about won't be able to because the room is full, and not every single person in that room will be there for what is currently going on. Sometimes they are there out of fear the room will be full for the next panel, and that's what they really want, sometimes they are interested in an actor, or artist, in the current panel because of some of their other work and are willing to endure talk about work they have either never heard of, or don't particularly care for. However, there are occasions, when those people who enter the room thinking they are of the uninterested variety find, at the end of the panel, they have been converted, or at the very least swayed and are now if not blatantly looking forward to what they've heard about, are suddenly inexplicably curious.

Such was the case with some of the people around me at the Cult panel. They came in talking about Vampire Diaries, and I had no idea why. It isn't a show I watch, or have ever seen an episode of, so I had no idea Matt Davis was an actor from the hit show until it came time to write this article and IMDB search the various actors for their credits in doing my research etc. But those same people who came in bemoaning how they were going to have to watch a pilot they had no interest in to get a mere 15 minutes with Matt Davis on stage, were saying when the panel was over that Cult was going on their must remember to watch for list.

In many ways that sums up the magic of a great panel at Comic-Con. When you, and the people around you, come out... wanting to join a Cult, and encourage others to do so.

As any of the ones who know the secret of the Cult would warn you -- do not click on the photos, if you do, notice the warning and do not watch this!

As with all wb panels, check the wb website for video of this panel

666 Park Avenue

Over the past few years I have found myself wishing the SyFy channel was heavier on Science Fiction and lighter on Horror. I have even wondered at times if the line between the two genres is blurrier in the minds of some than it is for me.
During the airing of the pilot for 666 Park Avenue was the first time I found myself thinking a similar series of thoughts of fantasy. I wanted it to be more mystical and magical. More fantastical and less... bloody. I do not know if I was hoping for too much, but the premise seemed to lend itself to so many fantastic possibilities within this apartment building at 666 Park Avenue that is owned and run by a couple portrayed by Terry O'Quinn (Lost, and more recently recurring on Hawaii 5-0) and Vanessa Williams (Desperate Housewives) that I wanted the writers to grasp hold of those possibilities and play with them. It seemed there was gratuitous gore and unnecessary violence and bloodshed when mystical magical possibilities lay just around the proverbial corner that could have fulfilled the same role in the story without making me wince and want to cover my eyes, or worse, groan and mutter "really"? Not that my aversion to such things should dissuade those made of sterner stuff, I simply wonder why when so many possibilities existed, and when the premise seemed tailor made to both explore and exploit them, the show instead took what almost seemed an easier out instead. That said, I was intrigued, and curious... and after the pilot had finished playing, and the cast came out, was positively laughing my head off when an audience member, in an effort to be polite, and not offend, and perhaps even be politically correct, tried to phrase a question so they did not ask Terry O'Quinn if he would be playing the Devil in the show, and in the process accidentally came across as asking if Terry O'Quinn would, instead, be playing God. The answer was delightful and charming as Terry O'Quinn demured, saying no, he would be playing someone who worked for that other fellow, you know, the one who converses with the man up stairs on a regular basis. That sense of humor, aplomb, and charm was typical of the panel, and made it a delight to attend.

The panel ended with the moderator asking everyone in the audience to sing Happy Birthday to Terry O'Quinn, who was then handed a birthday card. After reading it he quipped, "You know, I actually have my deal with the devil. I'm actually going to be 127. This is my first Comic-Con, I missed you all during Lost, but I'm glad we all got to catch up now." Just another example of the class act this entire cast/panel presented to those in attendance.





As with all wb panels, check the wb website for video of this panel