Better Late Than Never

Over the past few days I’ve been correcting one of my most current secret nerd shames: Seeing the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. It was something that interested me, but like many of those other shows, I forgot about it and before I knew it, season two was airing it’s finale and the task of getting into it was just too daunting (keep in mind, these were the days before Hulu and Netflix were big names).

However, with the many mediums that the modern day internet has to offer us, I have watched the mini-series launch of the show and the first few episodes of Season One. I’m enjoying the ride, and look forward to getting deeper and deeper into the universe (not to mention I’ve already had numerous ideas on how to turn the basic idea into a table-top for a variety of systems, both Sci-Fi and Fantasy).

However, it has occurred to me how bad of a TV watcher I am. I really don’t watch a lot of it, and I miss out on a lot because of it. Nowadays, with all of the aforementioned amenities and mediums, it’s not such a big deal, but in the past… well, I just have to wonder how many more great series I may have missed, along with the ones that I have almost missed.

Heck, the remake of V on ABC is the only thing I’ve been current on in the past few years, barring the second and (half of) the third season of Heroes (I literally finished watching the first season the day before season two started). LOST was one that sounded interesting, but by the time I realized that it was on, a few months had gone by, and by the time I really thought about looking for a way to catch up on it, it was already three seasons in and the task just seemed much too daunting. Even shows like Scrubs were ones that I came to late in the party. By the time I really started watching that one it was already well into syndication on several other networks and had was getting the main storylines in little bits and pieces here and there.

There’s a lot of TV out there nowadays. Most of it, unfortunately,  is dreck. However, I also know there is a lot of good TV out there. The question then becomes, how does one find what is good, and more importantly, find the time to watch it all when balancing work and other hobbies? I don’t think this is a question that will ever have a satisfactory answer to it, at least not where the major networks and their ratings are concerned, and that only means that more and more great shows are going to be getting left behind in the dust as the years go by, which is a loss for us all.

A Childhood Relived

I decided a while back that I was going to throw my money down on a reservation for a copy of Pokemon Soul Silver, the new game coming out today, an update, as well as a re-imagining of the second generation of Pokemon games, Gold and Silver after hearing my fiance all atwitter about the games.

Now as she tries to make herself busy so she doesn’t go insane waiting the last hour before the mall opens and we can get our copies, I sit here and think about just what this means.

I’m of an age where I strongly remember all the hype leading up to the American release of Red and Blue in Nintendo Power and a lot of the other gaming magazines. I was as excited as anyone with the release of the games and played the heck out of Red. I also remember Yellow, which still stands as my favorite Pokemon game to this very day. I remember watching the anime when it was localized along with lots of others and owned a number of the VHS tapes when they were released. I also taped a lot of the episodes off Kids WB on Saturday mornings. I saw the first Pokemon movie in theaters and collected the toys from Burger King. I owned a CD copy of 2BA Master and had ready access to the Movie Soundtrack (despite it being more a veritable who’s who of the 90s instead of a lot of Pokemon related music).

Then something interesting happened with the release of Gold and Silver. I got my copy of Gold, but hardly touched it. I was in 6th grade at this point, and somehow, Pokemon had fallen out of vogue with a large majority of people (or at least it seemed so).

It wasn’t until recently that I started playing copies of my fiance’s older Pokemon games while she busied herself with Pokemon Platinum and I was caught up in the nostalgia of the games once again. It takes me back to a point in my life where I didn’t have so many worries. I didn’t I have bills to worry about, or a job (other than school) that occupied a good majority of my week. Things were simpler back then and the more I played the games, the more and more that seemed evident in the style and the nature of the game.

One can comment on how the game hasn’t really changed over the years. While at the core, despite numerous trapping and roster changes this is true, it also doesn’t have to constantly be “new” and “innovative” as long as it can kick up the nostalgia factor and take me back to the uncomplicated days of youth, at least in my opinion.

And I call that money well spent.