First thing’s first, though. 2 of these series have already aired their pilots early, so I’m going to do a quick mention of them first (the show name link on these 2 links to the full pilot episodes):

• Animal Practice (NBC)
  Lead star Tyler Labine (from Reaper, among others) was enough to make me look forward to the show. The pilot was fun and has a decent amount of potential. I always wonder when shows start and feature an animal as a main character just how long they’ll keep that animal around. In this case, it is the (rather fun) monkey character. I was right about them not keeping the horse around on 2 Broke Girls, so we’ll see how long the monkey lasts. The show features a number of fun supporting cast members, too. And, it’s directed by the Russo brothers (of many great shows – including the greatest show currently on the air, Community). The pilot was definitely good enough for me to look forward to further episodes.
• Go On (NBC)
  Honestly, a dramedy starring Matthew Perry was enough of a sales pitch to make me watch. I may not look a lot like Matthew Perry, but more than a few people have compared my humor to his. It’s a fair comparison. I was one of the small handful of fans of Perry’s short-lived series last season, Mr. Sunshine. Thankfully, this series shows plenty of promise. The pilot was lots of fun. Here’s hoping the series fares better than Mr. Sunshine did in the ratings and can actually survive more than half a season.

OK, then here are the rest of them:

• Revolution (NBC)
  My most anticipated new show of the fall. This wildly ambitious series has a ton of fantastic pedigree behind it. At worst, it will be pretty good. At best, it will be awesome. I have high hopes for this one.
• The Following (FOX)
  Following right behind Revolution, this is my next-most-anticipated series for the new season. Kevin Williamson has reported written one of the darkest series to come along in a while, particularly for a broadcast network. The fact that it stars the great Kevin Bacon is simply icing on the cake.
• Elementary (CBS)
  OK, first a confession. I’ve not yet seen the BBC series Sherlock. I know, I know. How can a massive Doctor Who fan, of all people, not have seen Steven Moffat’s other big BBC hit? Wait, it gets worse. I’m actually a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read all the books (thought it’s been a while). I’ve seen many adaptations. I loved the recent Robert Downey Jr movies. Simply put, I’m a sucker for the franchise (if you wanna call it that). Will I watch Sherlock? Absolutely. It’s just one of them that got past me when it started and I need to go back and catch it. I may make an attempt at that before this series launches. Having said all that, I must say that I’m very much looking forward to this adaptation. I’m always a fan of Johnny Lee Miller’s acting (it’s truly sad that his wildly fun recent series Eli Stone didn’t last more than a couple partial seasons), and Aiden Quinn and Lucy Liu are welcome additions. The pilot for the series has been getting surprisingly strong reviews, too.
• Last Resort (ABC)
  An ambitious series with some decent names in front of and behind the camera. Aside from some terrible voice-overs, this is one of the few shows to actually feature some halfway respectable preview trailers. I expect this one to at least be pretty good.
• Arrow (CW)
  OK, so I know pretty much nothing about the comic this is adapted from. Frankly, I don’t think I’d even heard of it. This one features some great names behind the scenes, including David Nutter, one of the most successful and talented TV pilot directors out there. Given the huge amount of success that comic hero movies are enjoying, it only makes sense that The CW gets back in the genre game, what with the long run of Smallville ended.
• Ben & Kate (FOX)
  Directed by Jake Kasdan, so it automatically gets a chance. And, the under appreciated Nat Faxon is one of the stars, so that’s also a plus. Has some definite potential.
• 666 Park Avenue (ABC)
  This one looks like it might be deviously and stylistically fun. And hey, you’ve got Terry O’Quinn, so it can’t go too wrong. Could be quite fun.
• Vegas (CBS)
  This one might fall on its face, but it’s got plenty of great names involved, both in front of and behind the camera. You’ve got great cast members like Dennis Quaid and Carrie-Anne Moss. You’ve also got people like director James Mangold. I cannot stand the whole mafia/mob genre (utterly hated Goodfellas and Casino), but the whole Dennis Quaid as a cowboy sherrif in the midst of it all might manage to make it work.
• Partners (CBS)
  Yeah, this one looks wildly genre stereotypical. But, it’s got some decent pedigree, and it features David Krumholtz and Brandon Routh, so hopefully it can at least be somewhat fun.
• Chicago Fire (NBC)
  Dick Wolf doing a series about firefighters? Eh, could work.
• The Mindy Project (FOX)
  Really not expecting much from this one, but the previews have had a handful of amusing moments, and it has some decent cast members. Who knows, it could be one of those unexpected surprises.
• Emily Owens, MD. (CW)
  Eh, there’s a slight, outside chance this one might be decent, despite the preview clips showing little promise. I have to confess to being a fan of the series that will be the lead-in for this show, Hart Of Dixie (which will return for its sophomore season). It’s not in my favorite current shows list, but I like it. Not sure that a second series can stumble upon the right casual combo of charm and character, but I’ll give it a shot for the heck of it.

One final note: why, oh why, did The CW have to waste talented performers like AnnaSophia Robb and Freema Agyeman on something like The Carrie Diaries?

• Know what a web browser is
  This may sound like an odd one to put on this list, but you’d be amazed in this day and age how many people have no idea what a “web browser” is. When I’m talking to somebody on the phone and say, “open your browser and go to…” – about 1/4 of the time I’ll hear a silent pause on the other end and have to respond with, “you know, a web browser.” Typically, I’ll continue to get confused silence. Then I have tell them it would be what they use to get on the Internet, and would be one of the following programs (I’ll list them here in descending order of my liking): Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer. “Yes, that thing you use to get to the internet.”
• Do not add “www” to web address unless we tell you to
  This one drives me nuts. If we don’t say “www.” at the beginning of something, don’t add it. Sometimes it’s harmless to do so, typically when it’s a top level domain (like adding www. to the beginning of google.com). But often times I’ll spend 10 minutes trying to figure out why in the world a user can’t get to a web site such as blog.chicagoweathercenter.com, only to find out that they’ve been typing it as www.blog.chicagoweathercenter.com every single time. Almost all web sites work without the www. in front of it. If you have a habit of typing those www’s, break that habit. While I’m at it, no modern web browser needs you to type the http:// part at the beginning, either. Save yourself some time and don’t do that (if it’s a secure https variation, then you may need to).
• Know the difference between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer
  The folks at Mircosoft should be retroactively shot for this one. Rarely can you talk to a non-techie user and say “open up explorer and go to…” and have them know what you mean. Sometimes they think you mean Internet Explorer. Other times they have no idea what you mean. Eventually you have to tell them to “click on Computer on the start menu” or “click on My Documents” then navigate them to what you want them to get to. Microsoft made it much worse by calling their web browser Internet Explorer and their file browser Windows Explorer. At this point, I usually don’t even tell them what to open, but rather just tell them the hotkey (Windows+E) to hit to open explorer. Which brings me to my next item…
• Know how to do a hotkey combo on a keyboard
  If I could add up the amount of time I’ve taken explaining something as simple as hitting CTRL+P on a keyboard to people over the phone, I could probably add a year or two onto my life. “Hold down the Control key… It’s down on the bottom left corner of your keyboard below the shift key… And hit the letter P… It sounds like you didn’t hold down the Control key while you hit the P key… Yes, you can let go of the Control key now.” Even worse is explaining what the Windows key is. And it’s sad how very few people know of some of the Windows key shortcuts they can use (Windows+L being the most important by far – a quick way to lock the screen of your machine when you walk away from it). So know what you’re doing when we say to hit “ALT+F4″ or we say to hit “CTRL+C”.
• Know the difference between Log Off, Shutdown and Restart
  2/3 of the time when I tell people to log off their computer, they either ask, “you want me to shut it down?” or they simply shut it down without asking. No, when we say log off, we mean to pick the option that actually says “log off.” If we want you to shut it down or restart it, we will tell you to shut it down or restart it.
• When we say click, we mean left click
  The only time we want you to click with the right button on a mouse is when we say “right click.” Even if we’ve just told you to right click something, if our next direction is to click something, we mean to click it with the normal left mouse button. And BTW, the right mouse button is your friend. If you don’t know how to do something, try right clicking on it. Oh, and another major variation of this problem is that when we say “click on” we don’t mean “double click on.” If we want you to double click, we’ll say it. And a side tip for you while I’m mentioning it, you do not use double clicks on web pages. You just don’t. Only single clicks.
• Know the difference between your monitor, your computer and the other main parts
  When we say to turn on or turn off your computer, we don’t mean to just turn on or off the monitor on top of your desk. That’s not your computer. And your computer isn’t “the CPU” – one of the (rather small) components inside your computer is the CPU.
• Recognize a spelling/phonetic alphabet when you hear one
  When we’re telling you a serial number or something like that, many tech type folks will automatically use a phonetic alphabet to do so – you know, the kind of thing the average person associates with the military. When we start reading a serial number off, it would be as such: “one three alpha delta echo four eight tango charlie.” Please do not type that into the serial number blank as something like “13alphadeltaecho48tangocharlie.” You may be thinking to yourself that surely there aren’t people who would do that. I’m here to tell you that yes, indeed there are. There are more of those people than you would want to realize.
• Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know something
  Even worse than making the mistakes above is when us tech folks tell somebody to do something and we use a term or acronym (of which us tech folks have a few) that they don’t know, and rather than admit they don’t know what we just said or asked, they make a guess or an assumption. If you don’t know what a USB port is, please don’t guess. You can bend pins and short things out by plugging a connector into a wrong port. Just tell us you don’t know and we’ll describe it for you, and probably with a bit of back and forth conversation we can help you locate it on your computer.
• Last but not least, try a Google search to find an answer before you contact us
  Look, we’re happy to help. Really, we are. I’m not being sarcastic. It makes me happy to help people figure out how to do things with technology. But I do have to draw the line when somebody calls me with a question that could have easily been answered, even for the most beginner of users, by typing it into a Google search and looking at the top couple results. Learn how to help yourself for the basic questions. If the answer isn’t on the first page of results of a Google search, then we don’t mind being asked.

• Joe vs The Volcano (1990) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  “Oh, that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie.” This isn’t just one of my favorite movies, it’s in my top 10 favorite movies. It is also quite likely the best example of what this list is about. The vast majority of people, even the ones who saw the film, never seem to like the movie all too much. It has its staunch supporters, but we are few in number. I think one of the reasons this movie didn’t work for most people is that it doesn’t fit any preconceptions quite right. It’s hard to categorize, blending styles and genres rather drastically. I absolutely love this film. I’ve seen it many times (dozens, if not 100+).
• Josie & The Pussycats (2001) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This movie is wildly clever, with a perfect cast, fun production, brilliantly snarky dialog and is surprisingly subversive. I’ve always figured that this movie never hit big because it was advertised to the very audience that it undercuts. It’s a satire of pop culture and the media industry (so much so, I’m surprised a major studio would even green light the script). Not only that, but the music is honestly very well done. And the mockery of “boy bands” using the fictional music group duJour (featuring the great Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison, etc) is so spot-on it’s scary.
• LA Story (1991) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  People always seem to be surprised at how much Steve Martin has written, and not just acted in. When people ask me what my favorite Steve Martin movie is, LA Story is my answer. The typical response to my answer is either, “Really? I didn’t really like that one much”, or just, “I’ve never heard of that one.” This film strikes me as being the closest to Martin’s abstract and surrealist sense of humor as a final product. He has written a number of the other films he appears in, but this one feels most like the material you would find in his short story comedic writing, or his stand-up. I’m a big Steve Martin fan, and I absolutely love this movie.
• Titan AE (2000) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Some critics did praise this film at the time it came out. It was dwarfed at the time by a certain other sci-fi action film, The Phantom Menace. I recall Roger Ebert loving this movie and (rightfully) pointing out that this is the far superior family sci-fi action movie. The unique blend of traditional Don Bluth animation style with some more modern CGI techniques turned some people off who couldn’t figure out what to make of the thing. I continue to think this is a great film. One of the best of its specific genre. There’s a great amount of fun dialog and character work – but then again, it features some great screenwriters, like Ben Edlund, John August and none-other-than the master himself, Joss Whedon. BTW, where is Titan AE on blu-ray? Come on Fox, make it happen.
• The Frighteners (1996) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is probably still my favorite Peter Jackson movie. Again, I think it’s the blend of genres at work here, and the varying tone of the movie that causes it to miss the target for many people. Like many Peter Jackson films, it featured some cutting edge visual effects work. Michael J. Fox is great in the film, but the true scene stealer is the brilliant Jeffrey Combs.
• The Peacemaker (1997) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite action movies. For whatever reason, I love it. The pacing, production and cast are all top notch. The script is pretty tight and perfectly embodies the kind of film it sets out to be. It is also one of the late ’90s action films that I’d be curious to see remade in the post-9/11 world (I’d be just as curious to see The Siege and Executive Decision made post-9/11 as well – heck, I could have easily included both of those films on this list). And, never mind that this nearly non-stop action film is directed by a female director (the great Mimi Leder), which is a definite rarity (along with Kathryn Bigelow).
• Air America (1990) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  An action comedy film that features two lead cast members that would in later years become notorious off-screen. Initially, that was Robert Downey Jr, but he miraculously pulled himself together and returned even stronger than before. Today, it’s Mel Gibson that’s the off-screen screw-up. The other funny thing about that is that both Downey & Gibson are two of my favorite actors (even well before their meltdowns). I’m a fan of either of them in just about anything. This movie is rather flippant in its comedy about a relatively sensative subject matter, which probably didn’t help its reception at the time. It also walks a fine line between farce and reality, being based on the real life Air America in many broad stroke kind of ways, but taking huge liberties with its history.
• Dark City (1998) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This one might not properly qualify for this list, because it tends to be one that not enough people have seen, rather than one that is underappreciated. I still include it on this list because I think it comes close enough to qualify, and the fact that this is one of my top favorite films, and contender for top couple favorite sci-fi films. I couldn’t really guess how many times I’ve seen the movie. And if I didn’t already love it enough, a few years back director Alex Proyas got a director’s cut released to blu-ray/DVD, which managed to make it even better. Seriously, I love this movie. It also features one of my all time favorite trailers (linked above).
• Knowing (2009) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This often-maligned film is, in my option, criminally misunderstood. Like a number of them on this list that I love, one of the few big supporters is Roger Ebert. I know I said that I put these in random order on the list, but I intentionally put this one after Dark City. Like Dark City, I consider this a sci-fi masterpiece, and it is also directed by Dark City’s director, Alex Proyas. I personally think Nic Cage did a wonderful job in this film, but I kinda wonder if the stereotype of his persona and performance style automatically made people expect the wrong kind of movie.
• Speed Racer (2008) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  I get some stares of disbelief from fans of The Matrix when I say that this is my favorite movie by the Wachowski… uh… siblings (gotta break the habit of calling them the Wachowski brothers now that Larry is Lana). Yes, I thought The Matrix was great (heck, I even liked the sequels – I don’t consider them great, but I liked them). But I loved Speed Racer. I was a casual fan of the original animated series. I grew up on it. In my opinion, the Wachowski’s managed to both re-capture what made that original animated series so fun, and they did it with massive doses of awesome style. This is, in my opion, one of the flashiest and most colorful movies ever made. The blu-ray for the film is one of my favorite home theater demo discs. I saw this movie a number of times in the theater when it came out. It blew me away on the IMAX, where I saw it a few times. This movie is pure, pedal-to-the-metal fun.
• Meet Joe Black (1998) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This might even be a better example of what this list is about than Joe vs The Volcano. Most people actively dislike this movie. Well, not me. I love it. Everyone always jokes about how bad Brad Pitt’s performance was, etc. I thought he was great. They also complain about how long it was. Well, I like movies that take their time, as long I like the movie I’m seeing. I make no apologies for loving this movie.
• In The Land Of Women (2007) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This one is another one that only kind-of qualifies to be on this list. It is more a case of being an overlooked movie, but I think it qualifies for the list because the marketing of the film gave people the wrong impression, and those people I know that have seen it give it lukewarm opinions at best. If I didn’t know better, I would almost guess this to be a Cameron Crowe movie. The trailers weren’t terrible, but they gave it a more genre generic feel. Adam Brody’s performance is spot-on, and seemingly effortless. And Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart are good in the supporting roles.
• The Descent (2005) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  “Eh, another horror movie.” That was the basic reaction from folks to the movie at the time. I understand the reaction, given the somewhat oversaturated genre. But let me counter that with this – The Descent is quite possibly my favorite horror movie. I loved it the first time I saw it, and I have every time since. I’ll confess that I have yet to watch the sequel, primarily because I don’t want it to ruin my love of the first. I don’t honestly see how they could properly do a sequel to this movie, to be honest, and everything about the sequel seems like the usual horror genre attempt to just cash a check on making of said sequel.
• Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Like Speed Racer, I think this movie is fantastic and perfectly embodies what it set out to be. I think that it also, just like Speed Racer, failed for exactly that reason. I’m not sure there were enough people out there that wanted to see a modernly produced (but retro styled) version of a vintage “buck rogers” styled sci-fi film. There may not be many people out there that wanted to see it, but I was one of the few who loved it. The cast and crew certainly seemed to be having an absolute blast making it.
• That Thing You Do (1996) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Speaking of movies where the cast and crew seemed to be enjoying themselves way too much, there is That Thing You Do – Tom Hanks’ feature film writing/directorial debut. I saw this movie a number of times in the theater when it first came out (heck, I remember seeing it in a weird double feature with Independence Day – which was surely Fox trying to push ID4′s numbers just that little bit further). This is a case of most people remembering the film as, “eh, it was OK.” But like the rest on this list, I liked it far more than most everyone else. And not just because the main character is named Guy (though hey, that’s a neato bonus). Also, like Josie & The Pussycats mentioned earlier on this list, the music was very well done.
• Radioland Murders (1994) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This one falls into the same camp as Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. I don’t think the style and tone of this movie was something that a modern audience really appreciated. It’s old school farce, in both style and setting. It attempts to recapture the later days of the mad-cap world of radio. I don’t know if the cast and crew had a blast making this one, but if they didn’t, they sure made it seem that way.
• The Matador (2005) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is as much a case of an undiscovered jem as it is underrated. Though even those who have seen it don’t seem to like it nearly as much as I did. It’s a weird little film, and again is an example of one where genres are kinda oddly mixed. It’s part indie comedy, part spy thriller, part character drama, etc.
• Quick Change (1990) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  One of a couple wildly underrated Bill Murray comedies on this list. This one is notable for sharing a co-directing credit with Bill Murray (his one and only directing credit). This one is definitely one that I love that most people never particularly loved to begin with, and have entirely forgotten about since.
• Deathtrap (1982) (IMDB | Wikipedia | TV Trailer)
  One of my favorite movies. I get downright evil stares from fellow film buffs when I mention this as my favorite Sidney Lumet movie. This movie is Michael Caine at his absolute, top notch best. And Christopher Reeve is utterly marvelous as well. And Diane Cannon is, well, Diane Cannon. It’s easily described as a movie of a play about play writers writing a play containing play writers writing a play using the plot about the writing of said play, and the play that results.
• The Chase (1994) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is a wildly fun movie, and like Josie & The Pussycats, is a somewhat misunderstood movie. Or at least they aren’t appreciated for their satirical nature. In this case, said satire is aimed at the mass media. Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson do a heroes effort, given the fact that their characters spend almost the entire movie in a single car.
• Soldier (1998) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Kurt Russell takes his Snake Plisken style of acting to the ultimate extreme, uttering less than 100 words during the entire film (and he appears in nearly every scene). Actually, if I recall correctly, his word count is something like 72. At any rate, this is my favorite Paul W.S. Anderson movie. It takes his affinity of sci-fi/action movies with thin plots to just the right level. A very simple movie, yes. Yet still a wildly entertaining and fantastically stylized production. I actually have fun defending this movie.
• Swordfish (2001) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is a very odd action movie. It opens with a monologue about how bad guys in action films don’t properly do everything it takes to get away with what they are doing. They aren’t committed enough to their goal to be successful. Then it not only introduces a bad guy on a mission, but actually follows through on that monologue. It’s full of typical Joel Silver producing style, directed with inventiveness and class by Dominic Sena. The cast is great, and the music score by the odd combination of the great Christopher Young and Paul Oakenfold is wonderful. One of my favorite action movies.
• Pushing Tin (1999) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  A character dramedy about the crazy, high pressure life of air traffic controllers. Featuring a spectacular cast and a surprisingly unpredictable plot with left-of-center characters. I considered putting another oddball character dramedy featuring Billy Bob Thornton on this list as well (2001′s Bandits).
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  1999 was a year for movies about characters in a virtual computer simulation world. There wasn’t just the obvious entry on the list, The Matrix. There was also David Cronenberg’s fun and (as usual) bizarre Existenz. Then there was this cool and stylized movie that was somewhat under-the-radar, and not appreciated by those who did see it (possibly due to the sudden influx of movies like it at the time). This movie could easily play as an Outer Limits episode. It’s great.
• Below (2002) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  I still don’t know why this movie didn’t do so well. Perhaps it was a horror movie of the wrong type at the wrong time. This is more of a suspense thriller, and at the time the standard horror films were of the torture-porn variety. It is directed with copious amounts of style by David Twohy and is co-written by the great Darren Aronofsky. The fantastic ensemble cast is another major plus.
• The Majestic (2001) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Along with The Truman Show, this is a contender for my favorite Jim Carrey performance (and his almost creepily spot-on portrayal of Andy Kaufman in Man On The Moon). The direction by Frank Darabont is marvelous and the script is a delight. Everything about this movie works very well. I was very sad at the time that it never did too well.
• The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Here’s the other wildly underrated Bill Murray movie I’m including on this list. This is him at his hapless best. It’s a bit old school in style, but I think it works perfectly. I sometimes wonder if this movie would have been much more popular had it been released 10-20 years earlier. Oh, and Christopher Young’s score is SO VERY fun.
• Home Fries (1998) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  A romantic comedy written by Vince Gilligan, somebody best known for writing for The X-Files and Breaking Bad. Sound like an odd combination? Well, it is. And it’s a combination that works. The movie featured some of the most misleading and poorly made advertising I can remember, which surely didn’t help matters any. It’s a very odd movie, and I love it.
• Fierce Creatures (1997) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  The “sequel” to A Fish Called Wanda that has nothing to do with the story or characters of A Fish Called Wanda. It’s simply a reunion of the cast, and is in a similar style. This might not be quite as great as Wanda, but I thought it was great. I’m still confounded by the lack of popularity it has.
• Deep Rising (1998) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is a wonderfully silly creature feature action/horror movie. I’ve watched it many, many times. I saw it a number of times in the theater during its brief run. I was probably responsible for 10% of its total box office profit. This is another movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, and it stops at nothing to get there. It’s full of stereotypes and unafraid to embrace them. And it is SO MUCH FUN. The supporting cast is great. Treat Williams and Famke Janssen are excellent. And then there’s Kevin J. O’Connor at his absolutely best. Did I mention how much fun this movie is?
• Defending Your Life (1991) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  This is one of the most snarky and clever comedies I’ve seen. It is pitch-perfect Albert Brooks. This is by far the funniest film about the after life. People like Meryl Streep and Rip Torn certainly help.
• Dick (1999) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  One of the greatest historical farces ever made. This movie takes the Watergate scandal and finds every possible way to make it completely insane and ridiculous, not to mention hilarious. I would find it 100% impossible to believe that the cast and crew didn’t have the time of their lives making this movie. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams have a blast in the lead roles as the ditzy masterminds. The supporting cast is filled with hilarious actors taking on many dry and serious historical figures and robbing them of every last shred of dignity. And then there is Dan Hedaya doing the funniest portrayal of Richard Nixon there will ever be.
• Conspiracy Theory (1997) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Again, another odd cross-genre movie. Featuring a great performance from Mel Gibson and wonderful direction from his Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner. Heck, even Julia Roberts is pretty good in it. And hey, how can you possibly go wrong with Patrick Stewart as the big bad?
• Big Trouble (2002) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  A goofball ensemble comedy based on a Dave Barry book, which does a great job capturing his daft sense of crazy characters and situations. Full of both stupifying and stupified characters, this non-stop crazy movie is unafraid to try almost anything. It had the honor of being delayed for release due to being scheduled for release shortly after the 9/11 attack, and the fact that the movie revolves around a plot to get a nuclear bomb through an airport and onto a plane. I’ve seen this movie many times, and I still laugh all the way through it.
• We Were Soldiers (2002) (IMDB | Wikipedia | Trailer)
  Probably the most underappreciated war movie ever made. It’s actually a very historically accurate movie about the first major conflict of the Vietnam War. It perfectly captures that odd moment in history, when the new Air Cavalry approach to combat proved itself, reinventing combat tactics, yet before the entire Vietnam situation spiraled out of control in later years. The cast and production on this movie couldn’t possibly be any better. I’ve seen the movie and have read the non-fiction book it’s based on, and I don’t think they could have done a better job with the film.

First, a bit of setup for my discovery of the issue. My Dad has an Amazon account, which has a Kindle associated with it and is one of the 4 shared members of my Amazon Prime subscription. He’s used to being able to order stuff from it and have the Prime benefits (free shipping, etc). He called me one day and mentioned that it was mentioning shipping charges, and he saw no indication of it being a Prime membership account (with the alternate Prime version of the logo in the corner of the site, etc). At first, I figured he’d done something wrong. But then I got the password from him to try signing into his account and take a look, and sure enough, what he was saying was true. I double checked that it was the same e-mail address (he has a couple) that I had listed as a member of my Prime subscription, and it was.

So, I tried removing him from my Prime subscription and re-adding him. That didn’t help, but while I was hunting around his account settings area to check on that stuff, I noticed a lot more things were wrong with his account. His order history was completely blank. The Kindle registered to the account was nowhere to be found. There were no saved shipping addresses, etc. In other words, it was as if this account was brand spanking new. At that point, I realized something was clearly very wrong. So, I called Amazon’s support department, which I rarely ever have to do. They actually have a system where you put in your call back number on their site and within a minute or two you get a call from them.

What I learned from the experience kinda blew my mind. In all my years of being a very active Amazon customer, I never knew that it was possible to create more than one completely separate Amazon account using the EXACT SAME E-MAIL ADDRESS. The ONLY difference that has to exist between the two accounts is that they have a different password. That’s it. What had happened is that my dad had accidentally used an old password that happened to be correct for some other account that he’d accidentally created some time ago. The support person shot out a password reset e-mail for the CORRECT account (the original one, which had an active Kindle associated to it, etc). I did that password reset, logged into the account, and all was back to normal.

But then, after I ended the conversation with the support person after getting things back to normal, the problems of this began to occur to me. So, let’s say you’ve managed to setup saved card information, saved shipping info, or other personal info kinds of stuff in this wrong, old account you didn’t even know was out there. There’s no indication to you that you even have another account to worry about. So if you created that alternate account back in the day when you were using a much weaker password or such (as was the case in that blank extra account my dad had), if he had any information he didn’t want people to know, if that simple password had been compromised, he wouldn’t even know they were getting at said info. Sure, saved credit cards only show the last 4 digits, and you have to re-verify the CVV numbers and such to place an order, but it’s still a good amount of partial information. Never mind if you had order history that might be of interest. Heck, it might be YOU who needs to find that past order information, and if you didn’t know you HAD this other phantom account, you wouldn’t find said order info in your proper, active account. Put simply, I can’t imagine anything but BAD side effects from this ability to have more than one account for the same e-mail address. I cannot think of a single good thing that would come from it. I have absolutely zero idea why in the world Amazon allows this.

Then, as I sat there for the next 10 minutes and the back of my mind mulled it all over while I was doing other things, I though, “wait, if the only thing that has to be different between two accounts with the same e-mail address is the password, there’s no telling just how many different accounts he may have accidentally made over the years.” I also wanted them to delete the blank account so he wouldn’t wander into it again. So, I contacted Amazon back again. I explained the situation to the next support person and asked him to verify just how many accounts there were for that e-mail address. Turns out there was a 3rd account, as well. This third one actually had a few things that were ordered on it, some saved (expired) card info, etc. He’d actually used this one. This newly discovered third one hadn’t had any activity on it since 2009. So, I asked him to delete the blank one and the newly discovered ones. He said I’d have to do a written request via e-mail to have that done, but he would forward me a list of the 3 accounts, which are identified in their system as sequential account numbers for said e-mail address. So, in this case, the original, proper account was account #1. The blank one he’d stumbled into was actually account #2 (despite being empty, it actually was older – going back to 2007, than the third). Then there was this account #3 which had the order activity up to 2009. So, I had to turn that around into an e-mail request to have them cancel and delete accounts #2 & #3.

Then, after finishing all that, I decided to open a web chat with a support person at Amazon just to verify that I didn’t have some other unknown account floating around out there for my e-mail address. Turns out I was fine, with only one account. I mentioned this whole situation to a number of people I know and told them that it’s worth popping open a web chat window with their support and just ask them to confirm that there is only one account associated to their e-mail address. Sure enough, a couple of those people found out they had an extra derelict account from years ago and went through the process to kill them.

I recommend that everyone with an Amazon account pop up a web chat window with their support and do the same. It’s very simple and only take a minute to do.

Here’s a couple other little side questions that go with all this. Some food for thought:

• No, you can’t merge the stuff like order history from multiple accounts. At least that’s what the support folks told me. Best you can do is either maintain multiple ones or simply delete the ones you don’t want out there, order history and all.
• If you’re wondering what happens if you change your password on one account to the password on one of your other accounts, you will get a system error that Amazon was unable to change your password and it will give you a support # to call. Somebody on one of the forum threads tried just that for curiosity’s sake.
• Then there’s the weirdest question of the bunch. If you do have multiple accounts and you do the “forgot password” system to reset your password, what determines which account it will send you a link for? I have no definitive idea. My best guess is that it will send the link for “Account #1″ – which if this experience is indicative would be the oldest, first account you setup under said e-mail address.

• Corsair Carbide 300R Case
  I am hugely brand-loyal to Corsair. When it comes to PC components, it is the brand I prefer for whatever components they make. I’m particularly loyal to their specialty, RAM. And like most of their stuff, I cannot say enough about this case. It is one of their cheaper ones, but the bang-for-the-buck is fantastic. Everything about it is beyond simple and slick. It may not be shaped like some Transformer face or other such gaming rig case, but I don’t care about that stuff (in fact, I prefer simplicity and functionality over bulky looks). This case is both light and strong. It weighs a lot less than the OLD Antec tower server case I had the previous workstation hardware in (that case was a dozen or more years old – an early ATX case, with no front ports of any kind, etc). If you are looking for a wonderfully designed and easy to work with case that is solidly built, look no further. Nothing but praise. I actually picked up 2 of these cases so that I could put the parts of my previous workstation into a new one (abandoning that very old Antec case I mentioned) to use as a media front-end machine.
• AMD FX-8120 8-Core CPU
  One of the groovy new 8-core CPU’s. Out-of-the-box, it has 8 3.1 GHz cores. And hey, it comes in a nifty tin metal case, too. I got a nice deal (which ended the day after I got it) off the CPU and motherboard price via a combo deal at MicroCenter. Got $100+ off the motherboard via the combo and a bit more with a $10 rebate. I did some overclocking on it, but got the occasional BSOD (always when I was away from the machine for some reason – like while I was asleep or away from the house). So for the last week, I’ve had it back at stock speed and it has worked perfectly. Overall, this is a great CPU, plain and simple. I’m an AMD fan. I haven’t had an Intel CPU machine since the ’90s. I enjoy the better bang-for-the-buck AMD has, and I’ve never had even the slightest problem with one of their chips.
• ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard
  For the $80 or so I got this board for, it was a steal of a deal. This is a fantastic board. The array of ports on it is dizzying. The neato new UEFI graphical UI BIOS system is something I hadn’t yet played with. Overall, a wonderful, solid ASUS board that really cranks combined with the 8-core CPU.
• Corsair 16gb (4x4gb) XMS3 DDR3 1600 RAM
  Strangely, the 16gb kit isn’t on Corsair’s site, so I linked to the 8gb kit page. What I got just had 4 of the 4gb sticks, not just 2. This is one piece for which I cut a slight corner. I was gonna get the 16gb Corsair Vengeance set of RAM, but I could get the XMS3 for a bit more than $30 cheaper. Corsair’s XMS2 memory has served me perfectly in a couple machines (including the one this was replacing), and I have XMS3 in my unRAID server box. I think when I was originally overclocking that it might have been the RAM that was choking (not sure about that – may try overclocking again after a few weeks if the machine is proven to be stable at normal rates). As a rule, I always use Corsair for RAM.
• Corsair Hydro H60 CPU Water Cooler
  This was the most unique and newest piece to this puzzle for me. I’ve never gone for a water cooling system before due to the cost, complexity and maintenance involved. I’m not really an overclocker or gamer, so I don’t push CPUs to the limit much. But Fry’s had a nice $50 sale (with NO REBATE, HUZZAH!) on this. The reviews were great and the install video (which is on the linked page) made it look crazy simple. And as a closed liquid system, there’s no maintenance. So, was it as easy as it looked? No. It was easier. Seriously, a water cooling system couldn’t possibly be any easier to install than this. It took a couple minutes to install. No worse than any air cooling fan/heatsink system. Highly recommended.
• Corsair Force GT 120gb SSD
  My previous machine was using an 80gb Corsair Force 2 SSD drive. I have gotten quite used to having SSD system drives in my machines (my HP laptop has an identical 80gb Corsair Force 2 system drive – along with a secondary 500gb 5900 RPM drive). SSD’s may be pricey, but the performance jump is astounding. I highly recommend them to folks looking to speed up a machine. Of course, you usually just use them for a system drive and have one or more extra drives of non-SSD variety for actual data and what-not. I was initially going to get a 180gb Force 3 drive that Fry’s had on sale for $200, but I kinda wanted to get the fancier Force GT series drive for the synchronous memory and the speed improvement that gives. However, I could only find one deal on a Force GT drive at the time, and that was at CompUSA/TigerDirect. And it was only available at their Naperville warehouse, and was marked as limited availability. I had done online orders for in-store pickup with the stuff from MicroCenter and Fry’s, but annoyingly CompUSA/TigerDirect does not offer that ability. So, I had to set out on Sunday morning to get to CompUSA down in Naperville shortly after they opened at 10:00 am to make sure they didn’t run out. I did get one of them, thankfully. After rebate, it was $150. Not as big as the 180gb Force 3, but cheaper and still bigger than the 80gb Force 2 I was previously used to. Actually, it’s kinda cool that between CompUSA, Fry’s and MicroCenter, I can drive around to pickup all manner of computer components at good prices. Most folks don’t have that luxury and have to do mail order for all of it. Heck, I have a CompUSA/TigerDirect location within a couple minutes of my house (I don’t even have to go through a single traffic light to get to it). Fwiw, I got all the components at MicroCenter, except for the H60 water cooler at Fry’s and the Force GT SSD at CompUSA. As expected, this Corsair Force GT drive SCREEEEEEEEEEAMS in performance. Seriously, once you’ve gone SSD, you don’t go back. SSD drives are such a moving target, and can vary WILDLY in performance vs price. If you are ever wanting to get one, feel free to check with me about which to get. That market changes blindingly fast. What was true one month will likely not be true the next month.
• Zotac GeForce GT 520 Video Card
  Since my previous machine components were going to be used as a multimedia box, I needed to get a new video card for this new build so that I could still utilize the previous GeForce GT 220 card in that box. I tend to stick with nVidia GPU’s, though I consider ATI a decent alternative. The one rule I do have, though, is NEVER to use an Intel video GPU. Their newest ones might actually be OK for all I know, but I have had nothing but horrible experiences with their video chipsets. All those years of making pure crap GPU’s have forever tainted them for me. As long as nVidia and ATI are out there as a choice, I will never choose an Intel GPU. At any rate, I chose the Zotac card since it was the best deal for the spec. I got the card for about $35 after rebate from MicroCenter. Actually, I got most of the components from MicroCenter due to them having the best deals at the time (heck, I had a half dozen rebates involved in stuff from MicroCenter – enough that I think the registered spit out a quarter of its paper role for all the rebate forms and receipt copies).
• OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Power Supply
  I normally use a Corsair power supply, but I couldn’t find a great price on one at the time. There was a good deal on this OCZ unit at the time via MicroCenter, so that’s what I went with. I’m a fan of modular power supplies (where you only have to hook up the cables that you need), so that’s a big plus on this unit. So far, it’s been great. OCZ is a good brand, so I had faith it would be a good PSU.
• As far as the optical drives go, I’m keeping the 2 drives I already had in the previous main workstation in play in the new one. They are an LG Blu-Ray writer drive and a Samsung DVD-RW drive (which I got to primarily use for CD audio ripping – as the LG BD-Rom kinda sucks at it and the Samsungs are fantastic at it). Heck, I also have an XBox 360 HD-DVD drive that’s hooked up via USB as well (I don’t have a 360 – just have this drive for HD-DVD use on the PC, having got it for chump change when HD-DVD was dying). I also left the 2 Hitachi 7200 RPM 2tb hard drives in the machine. I’m only moving the 80gb Force 2 SSD with the rest of the parts for use in the media front end machine.

The Relaunch book series picks up where the series left off. It introduces new characters, continues on with the characters that were still on the station at the end of the series, and carries forward a number of the still running plots. Unfortunately, over the years the book series has slowed to a mere trickle, with a very uncertain future, at best. Frankly, I’m impressed it made it as far as it did. If you are a fellow Deep Space Nine fanatic like myself and have not read them, I wholeheartedly recommend it. I read them all as they were published over the years, almost entirely via eBook form. Yes, even during the early years of eBooks some dozen or so years ago. It was not nearly as simple in the early eBook era (I did most of the reading via my iPaq Windows Mobile device via Microsoft’s Reader application in their LIT format). I will be re-reading the books in ePub format on my iPhone (or possibly via a tablet should I finally choose and get one in the near future – perhaps a Kindle Fire or something). I will be posting a review of each book as I go. It is one of a couple revisit efforts I am currently getting underway. The other is re-watching the full run of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (arguably my favorite series of all time), for which I will likely also be doing episode reviews. All things being equal, I will likely be watching a lot of DS9 episodes while reading the Relaunch books again. Reading those always makes me want to watch episodes of the show.

So, starting tomorrow, I will begin reading the excellent first book of the series, The Lives Of Dax. It was technically less of a start to the Relaunch series as a compendium that sets up some core components that get the rest of the book series underway. I am not likely to read through these at a very fast speed. I tend to do all the reading while I am at restaurants eating dinner, and I also tend to do Google+, Twitter and other stuff on the phone as well. So book reading is a bit hit-or-miss. Perhaps a book every month or two is likely.

Oh, btw, I did just finish reading Sex On The Moon via eBook on the phone recently. I highly recommend it. It is a non-fiction book, written by the same person who wrote The Social Network. Fascinating story and a great read.

OK, to whomever at Cineflix Productions or National Geographic Channel that might somehow see this. I’m a huge fan of the documentary series Air Crash Investigations, or Mayday!, or Air Emergency, or any of the other number of names the show has aired under. I’m a constant TV watcher, and am and have been a huge fan of a great many shows. But let me tell you, the airing and organization of this series has frustrated me far beyond any other show has ever managed.

As much as I love NatGeo for a lot of their great programming, whoever is in charge of scheduling and series production over there is a deranged lunatic in need of a straight jacket. I picture that person as some kind of ADHD-afflicted, wild-eyed, unkempt person constantly looking around in various directions, exclaiming “squirrel!” every 1.5 minutes. Countless episodes run under heaven knows how many episode names and as part of an unknown number of different series groupings. As a fan of any given series, it takes an ENORMOUS amount of research and effort to even know which episodes I have seen and which I have missed. No other network has ever made it more challenging to be an avid viewer.

But NatGeo’s part of the Air Crash Investigation puzzle is only part of the problem. Cineflix REALLY needs to give better episode info to the networks running the show, because every one I’ve seen reports episodes in all manner of “season” configurations. Fans have, for the most part, ironed out the episode and season order and grouping (through endless research, comparisons and arguments). The more us fans figure out, the more NatGeo and other related networks seem to decide to screw with us in how they air/list the episodes. Said networks may air it whenever the frak they feel like, under a dozen different names at utterly random and bizarre frequency, but then we have the video releases. I sit here utterly befuddled by how this show is (barely) released to video. I would (and do) buy every single scrap of material they release to disc, in whatever the highest quality possible may be. But again, trying to do so is a heck of a challenge.

Season 1 of the show was released to DVD back in mid 2009 by E1 Entertainment in the USA, under the name “Mayday: Air Disasters” (because of course, that combination of titles is one the series had actually NOT previously used in any region or incarnation!). Never mind the fact that it says nothing about being a “season 1″ of anything, or in any way indicates to buyers that there is more of the series in existence. And here’s the kicker – it’s a very nice DVD set. Video is anamorphic. Episodes are actually LONGER than their aired version (by about 5-6 minutes each). Overall, an excellent little release – were anyone to actually know it exists, of course. Only die hard fans like me could connect enough dots to find this great, but obscurely released DVD set. I have a review on the Amazon product page, btw.

THEN came the season 7 DVD release later in 2010. In which country was this released, you might ask? Australia, of course. So far, not breaking the shows history of utter inconsistency. This one, at least, was not only released under it’s most well known name, “Air Crash Investigation,” but also indicated what season it was. Again, a good quality release. If you’re capable of PAL format playback (which I am), it’s another good release.

I troll Amazon and the likes every few weeks for any possibility of a new release for the series. Lo and behold, I discovered not just a new listing, but two of them – of a large number of episodes this time. But of course, as I do a little digging, I get more and more confused. Let’s start with Amazon’s listings. We have a DVD listing of “Mayday!-Season 3 and 4″ for $36. The picture shows what looks like a multi-pack box that folds out, etc. OK, so far so good. 10 discs listed at 1155 minutes, due out on April 3. That tracks. But what’s this? I see an alternate listing with Blu-Ray packaging? AWESOME! Season 3 was when it was first produced for HD quality, so that makes sense. But then, confusion sets in. This one shows a March 27 release date, only 654 minutes runtime on 3 discs at only $16. It doesn’t list the episodes, so who knows how many it has, even though it also says it is seasons 3 and 4. And the kicker? It says the format is DVD, in more than one place. Surely they didn’t fake the package art. What the heck is going on here?

So, let’s do some more research then, shall we? We get a listing like this that reveals the UPC code. We go down that rabbit hole to find listings like this one. It not only specifically states it as blu-ray and has the same UPC, but lists the same confusing 3 discs and 654 minutes, which is absolutely impossible given that this one specifically lists the 23 episodes (which is, btw, an accurate count of season 3 & 4′s episodes). But of course, this listing shows the photo that corresponds to the OTHER listing that Amazon has, for the 10 DVD gatefold set. And the real kicker? It lists it as having MONO audio, which absolutely MUST be a mistake. There are a number of other listings I’ve found with various pieces of contradictory specs and odd combinations of cover art. They all list it as being released by Madacy, and their site is one of the most useless sites out there for any actual information about anything. I’ve actually got no idea what to expect from this release. I’d be thrilled if this is really both seasons 3 & 4 on blu-ray with all 23 episodes in high def. I have my doubts, primarily because of the lower price at all the sites that list it (price is one of the few things they all seem to agree upon).

Frankly, I’m going to try to take advantage of the situation. I’ve pre-ordered the one on Amazon for $16 that has the blu-ray packaging in the photo, despite it listing it as DVD format. I can always cancel it before the release date, and I’ll be locked into this price if they do end up adjusting it up once they figure out what the frak they are actually selling.

UPDATE: Good grief. So Walmart lists it at only $12. They only refer to it as blu-ray, never calling it a DVD. They do, of course, stupidly list it as mono as well. It does also list all 23 episodes, but yet only the goofy 654 minutes. I give up figuring this out. I’ll just hope for the best on my pre-order.

Not only has it lived up to expectations, it has surpassed them. And it has done so by taking the foot off the gas pedal, so to speak. The most recent couple episodes have been particularly excellent, and they have been almost entirely devoted to character development, with pretty sparse action material. This series is the real deal. Destined to be one of the best of its years on the air. At this point, I feel like it’s safe to say that The Walking Dead shares the top position with Community for my favorite in-production series. As always, I’ll stipulate the qualification of them being an American series – so that I don’t have to consider where Doctor Who would have to fit. And they don’t come as different from each other as Community and The Walking Dead.

If you haven’t checked out the show yet, by all means, do so. It’s not just “a zombie show.” It is FAR more than that. This is as good as dramas come. In as much as Battlestar Galactica is more than a sci-fi show, or Lost is more than a, uh, whatever-the-heck-genre-it-belongs-to show. These are just environments and frameworks in which to set fantastic characters.

I’ve been temped to read the graphic novel series, but given how much they seem to base the series on it I’ve avoided doing so to stay spoiler free. I will say that one of the more initially unassuming characters is turning into one of my favorites – the character of Glenn, played by Steven Yeun. I’m also convinced that Laurie Holden’s character is going to end up as another of my favorites. I’ve been a fan of her work previous to this series, and her role has all the earmarks of awesomeness.