And as a fan of Raymond Chandler's detective novels, the story line of Blade Runner was intuitively appealing to me with its theme of an honest detective dealing with danger rooted in corruption, thuggish and indifferent cops, and a femme fatale. The scene at the police HQ and line from Police Captain Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) to Deckert (Harrison Ford) -- "you're not cop, you're little people!" -- could easily have come from Chandler.
The dark lighting, exteriors, and palates of X-Files and Supernatural were due not just to story matter but also to both being filmed and produced in Vancouver. Although a glorious place, Vancouver is not known for sunny days.
Farscape would have survived for another couple of seasons if it had a larger audience or better financial backing. As it was, Farscape's 88 episodes fall just short of the 100 episodes that are seen as the minimum for syndicated reruns. The result is that an innovative sci-fi series disappeared without a trace in reruns. Somewhere, an entertainment industry accountant must sigh from time to time over the revenue forfeited for lack of an extra season or two.
Fox's treatment of Firefly was sad and stupid. For me, Burn Notice had special appeal in that it began its run not long after the death of a friend who had spent years as a deep cover US intelligence operative. The buoyant and glib manner of the main character even reminded me of my old friend.
I don’t remember the movies from that era. They didn’t get shown on any of the three TV stations we could pick up when I was young.
Alien was dark, but Blade Runner was almost TOO dark for my taste. Even now I wish they had lightened up just a bit.
My reading ran more to history, science fiction and Louis Lamour. Most of the time the difference between good and evil was clear and stark.
I kind of figured Supernatural was filmed in Canada, but I didn’t know X-Files was. Vancouver huh?
If the place has such a dearth of sunlight its a wonder everyone there isn’t suicidally depressed! It must be like Seattle with it’s 9 months of darkness (cloud cover).
The SyFy channel has run Farscape along with the movie a couple of times so I did get to watch it once on rerun. Amazon Prime has it in their streaming lineup but as a pay option.
Sadly the world just wasn’t ready for Farscape.
Burn Notice... what’s not to like!
I particularly like the cast, even Sharon Gless as Mrs Westen, although the 1/4th Indian Gabrielle Anwar is a bit of a stretch as an IRA bomber. Given that, she was great in the show, wonderful foil for the Michael Westen character. Burn Notice also did a great job of having interesting guest stars on the show. Tim Matheson, Tricia Helfer and Moon Bloodgood were three of my favorites. I also like the way the show is narrated by Jeff Donovan. It adds to the show.
Another thing is the special effects aren’t over the top. The narration explains why shooting a propane gas cylinder doesn’t create an explosion and that something needs to be added.
Overall I think Burn Notice was probably one of the best TV shows made.
Trivia: In the week leading up to his casting call for the show Jeff Donovan hurt his mouth in a lobster eating contest. As a result he didn’t have full use of his mouth, resulting in a clenched jaw delivery. He apologized to the casting director but the director LOVED his delivery and highly suggested to Donovan and the studio that the Westen character have that type of delivery.
History was made and a star was born.
You knew a spook?!!?
How cool.
Sorry to hear your friend passed away.