My Thoughts on: The Syfy Channel

I know this is strange but I am not doing a video game this time. I decided to discuss my thoughts on the SyFy channel. I will talk about the name, TV shows, and Movies. Now let me get this out in the open I love the SyFy channel it brought me my favorite TV show as well as mini series but the channel has two sides to it. What I mean by that is when it does something well it does it really well but when they suck it up well there is no end to the suckage. So lets get into "My Thoughts on: The Syfy Channel".

Now the SyFy channel recently changed its name from ScFi which really seemed to upset people so lets look at the change and see why anyone should even care. Scfi as a name is very straight to the point telling us what type of programming is shown on the channel. In case your well stupid or just never thought about it Scfi stands for Science Fiction and that is the programming they have on the channel even though not all of it is fictional. However the name SyFy doesn't seem to stand for anything but the name is pronounced the same. Now they gave some bringing people together bull crap but I think the real reason for the change was they were getting into reality shows like Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth which are not science fiction shows but more pseudo science (As in not a proven science but there are things supporting it. Trust me the paranormal stuff I know thats not fiction.) So to me changing the name so it sounds the same but takes the fiction out of the name makes sense. So I actually like the name change I know there are people out there who don't and they are entitled to there opinions. So lets talk about the television programming.

SyFy has some really good TV shows between the scripted to the real they are rather good. I am going to start with the reality shows that are featured on SyFy. Now my favorite show is Ghost Hunters and it has been for many years actually getting me interested in the paranormal. The interest in the Paranormal caused by this show lead me to joining Paranormal Research of Illinois and doing something that I love doing. Ghost Hunters started a trend for SyFy with investigation shows where a team investigate other aspects of the paranormal like mythical creatures and local legends, Internet Videos, and even UFO's (but that show isn't on any more.) The success of Ghost Hunters lead to a couple spin off shows Ghost Hunter International and Ghost Hunters Academy. Now to set the record straight the evidence they get in the show is real however the show is made for entertainment and you can see that in the reactions to every little noise. The only one of our members I have heard swear while investigating is probably Mikey but thats just normal conversation (Haha love ya Mikey).

When it comes to scripted television SyFy succeeds as well. It shows like eUREKA, Warehouse 13, and Estate of Panic (It didn't last long but I liked it). However I haven't watched many of these except for Estate of Panic. However the scripted programming that I absolutely loved was the mini series Tin Man.

I am going to talk a lot about Tin Man due to its awesomeness. Now Tin Man is a re-imagining of the classic The Wonderful Wizard of OZ. Taking the story and giving it a darker twist to it. Tin Man is the story of DG a waitress who after an attack by the Long Coats (Who are the personal army of the evil sorceress Azkadellia is transported to the Outer Zone (OZ). While there she meets some interesting characters first of witch is Glitch (Played by Allen Cummings.) Glitch takes the role of the Scarecrow this time around as Azkadellia had his brain removed (Due to the advancements of other dimension science people can live without a brain). The brain removal is actually kind of funny because Glitch now has a zipper on the top of his head and his synapses doesn't fire right. The next character we meet is Wyatt Cain (played by Neal McDonough) who is a "Tin Man" (Tin Man is the name for the cops of central city). When we first meet Cain he is locked in a tin suit and forced to watch his family (Wife and Son) being beaten and taken away in an endless loop. When asked how long he has been in there he points to a rather tall tree and says "Since that was a sapling ". Kain is often told "Have a heart Tin Man" which is a throwback to the origional Tin Man. Next we met Raw (played by Raoul Trujillo) who is our cowardly Lion like character. Raw looks like a cave man with long messy hair and waring fur. Raw is cowardly because his people are being hunted by Azkadellia because they have the ability to read minds and see the future.

So we have introduced our main characters so lets get into the story a little bit. Azkadellia is looking for the Emerald of the Eclipse so she can harness the power of the eclipse to become very powerful. She finds out that there is someone who can stop her in the other dimension so she has her long coats awaken a traveling storm to go destroy this "light". All of this leads to DG (DG is a throw back to Dorothy Gale) getting to the OZ. through out the story we will see creatively designed locations and interesting characters like the Mystic Man who was once considered a Wizard and even Tutor (Tutor has the ability to turn into a dog that resembles Toto). Azkadellia's and DG's pasts are reveled showing that they are sisters and the daughters of the Queen of OZ. One time when out exploring DG and Azkadellia enter a cave because they were hearing a girls distressed voice calling for help. However when they go deeper into the cave they find a green skinned witch locked in a chamber (Who could that be referencing). As long as the sisters held each others hands they will be protected by the light (some sort of magic) but when the witch attacks DG gets scared and runs off leaving Azkadellia to be possessed by the evil witch. This leads to the evil person Azkadellia is today. So now DG and the gang have to both stop and save Azkadellia before she lets the witch take over OZ.

I have to say I love this mini series (it also helps that I love the Wizard of Oz.) I like seeing things given a darker twist like what they did with Majora's Mask. The characters are interesting and easy to relate to. The story is amazing I love it a lot. The design of the locations are very creative and well done. The only downside is some of the acting isn't the best and the CGI used in some scenes aren't very realistic (Not as bad as most of the SyFy CGI though) So that is the epic story of Tin Man which was nominated for an Emmy and is also out on DVD I would suggest looking it up at a store or on Netflix its worth the watch. I just watched episode one last night and ming watch episode two some time today.

So this brings us to the SyFy Channel origional movies and boy do these suck. This is where SyFy fails the hardest with terrible writing, bad acting, Stupid ideas, and incredibly unconvincing CGI. Some of the movies include Mammoth in which aliens bring a wolly mammoth back to life so it can wreak havoc or something like that. There are also Transmorphers I wonder what they are ripping off here. How about "Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus I think this was going through their heads when writing one scene.

Stupid Writer: "Hey guys. Sharks can jump out of the water right?"

Stupid Guys: "Yes Stupid Writer they can."

Stupid Writer: "How high can they jump?"

Stupid guys: "Oh we don't really know."

Stupid Writer: "Well do you Stupid Guys think one could jump into the air and take down some sort of air craft that is high in the sky?"

Stupid Guys: "What a stupid question of course they can everyone knows that."

Stupid Writer: "Duh I know that sorry to ask such a stupidly obvious question."

Stupid Guys: "Oh its ok Stupid Writer don't feel bad about it."

In my opinion the Stupid Writer and the Stupid Guys should feel very bad about it. Thats not possible even with a Maga Shark. Now this isn't rare plenty if not all of the SyFy channels movies suck. Unless they some how get a hold of a good one someone else made then its ok.

So when it comes down to it I have a some what love hate relationship with the SyFy channel. I love their TV shows and I try to catch there mini series when they have one that I think looks good. However I hate their movies the constant crap they put on the channel and call it movies just needs to stop. Its cool that you are showing movies that you won't see anywhere else but don't just give any idiot with a movie a time slot. So there you have it ladies and gentle men My Thoughts on: The SyFy Channel.