Flash Gordon on Sci Fi Channel tonight!

[Theagenes]

http://www.scifi.com/flashgordon/

 

Anybody planning on watching? I'm excited about the fact that FG is possibly making a return to mainstream pop culture, but I have to admit I'm a little dubious from what I've read about it. It sounds like it will bear little resemblance to the Raymond strip aside from the names of the major characters. Actually it sounds like it might just be Stargate SG-1 reguritated with a new (old) name. Thoughts?

 

Jeff

[The Black Hand ®]

I'm not holding out much hype....errr....I mean hope. It looks to be a current pop culture saturated take on Flash Gordon. I like the Sci-Fi channel best when they do original stories and not remakes like Galactica. I'd like to see more Farscapes and Lexx's. More imports like Doctor Who. Having said that, I hope it's good.

[johnenock]

I'm not holding out much hype....errr....I mean hope. It looks to be a current pop culture saturated take on Flash Gordon. I like the Sci-Fi channel best when they do original stories and not remakes like Galactica. I'd like to see more Farscapes and Lexx's. More imports like Doctor Who. Having said that, I hope it's good.

 

I agree with you. Sci-Fi is at their best when exploring original stuff like Eureka and Invisible Man(anyone remember that one). However, I do like the Dresden Files, which is adapted from some of the worst written books in the history of best-sellers.

[seank]

I plan on watching Dr. Who tonight then checking out Flash Gordon.

[chrisco37]

Are they going to use the theme song from the 80's movie? They should!

[supapimp]

 

it got slammed by USA today:

 

You'll pan this 'Flash' as soon as you see it

 

Flash Gordon

* 1/2 (out of four)

Sci Fi, Friday, 9 ET/PT

 

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Sometimes TV should just leave bad enough alone.

Alas, ever since Sci Fi got a surprise, well-reviewed hit out of Battlestar Galactica by bleeding the camp from the silly original (a path blazed by Tim Burton's Batman), networks have been searching for other relics that could benefit from a similarly straight update. This fall, you get NBC's gloomified Bionic Woman. Friday you get Sci Fi's Flash Gordon — which, while not gloomy, certainly counts as dreary.

 

Born as a '30s comic, Flash has been through many incarnations — most of them terrible, and almost all of them flops, the lone success being the '30s serials starring Buster Crabbe. While the latest version is less outrageously awful than the best-known, out-of-this-universe 1980 big-screen remake, it's also much less fun, as amateurish mediocrities tend to be.

 

In place of Sam J. Jones' stalwart dimwit, Flash substitutes Smallville's Eric Johnson as a wisecracking nice guy who's hung up on his ex-girlfriend, Dale (Gina Holden) — a plot twist that would be easier to buy if there were even an iota of chemistry between them. With the help of Dr. Zarkov (a grating, frantic Jody Racicot), they battle the evil ruler of Planet Mongo, Ming — once known as "The Merciless" and now more appropriately billed as The Purposeless.

 

If you need a symbol for everything that's wrong with Flash, John Ralston's lifeless Ming will serve. Obviously, the traditional, insensitive quasi-Asian take on Ming would be a hard sell these days, but that doesn't explain the transformation of Mongo's once grandly flamboyant emperor into a penny-ante deluded dictator, and a dull one to boot. Offending viewers is always a mistake, but so is putting them to sleep.

 

 

 

[Theagenes]

Are they going to use the theme song from the 80's movie? They should!

 

[Theagenes]

 

it got slammed by USA today:

 

You'll pan this 'Flash' as soon as you see it

 

Flash Gordon

* 1/2 (out of four)

Sci Fi, Friday, 9 ET/PT

 

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Sometimes TV should just leave bad enough alone.

Alas, ever since Sci Fi got a surprise, well-reviewed hit out of Battlestar Galactica by bleeding the camp from the silly original (a path blazed by Tim Burton's Batman), networks have been searching for other relics that could benefit from a similarly straight update. This fall, you get NBC's gloomified Bionic Woman. Friday you get Sci Fi's Flash Gordon — which, while not gloomy, certainly counts as dreary.

 

Born as a '30s comic, Flash has been through many incarnations — most of them terrible, and almost all of them flops, the lone success being the '30s serials starring Buster Crabbe. While the latest version is less outrageously awful than the best-known, out-of-this-universe 1980 big-screen remake, it's also much less fun, as amateurish mediocrities tend to be.

 

In place of Sam J. Jones' stalwart dimwit, Flash substitutes Smallville's Eric Johnson as a wisecracking nice guy who's hung up on his ex-girlfriend, Dale (Gina Holden) — a plot twist that would be easier to buy if there were even an iota of chemistry between them. With the help of Dr. Zarkov (a grating, frantic Jody Racicot), they battle the evil ruler of Planet Mongo, Ming — once known as "The Merciless" and now more appropriately billed as The Purposeless.

 

If you need a symbol for everything that's wrong with Flash, John Ralston's lifeless Ming will serve. Obviously, the traditional, insensitive quasi-Asian take on Ming would be a hard sell these days, but that doesn't explain the transformation of Mongo's once grandly flamboyant emperor into a penny-ante deluded dictator, and a dull one to boot. Offending viewers is always a mistake, but so is putting them to sleep.

 

 

 

Ouch!

[Point Five]

Alas, ever since Sci Fi got a surprise, well-reviewed hit out of Battlestar Galactica by bleeding the camp from the silly original (a path blazed by Tim Burton's Batman), networks have been searching for other relics that could benefit from a similarly straight update. This fall, you get NBC's gloomified Bionic Woman. Friday you get Sci Fi's Flash Gordon — which, while not gloomy, certainly counts as dreary.

 

Funny that they mention Tim Burton's Batman, as the shows they describe sound just like the TV equivalent of all the "grim 'n' gritty" comic character remakes in the late 80s.

[Theagenes]

Wow.... that was pretty weak.

I think maybe USA Today was being charitable. That was really low budget, even for Sci Fi -- put a yellow filter on the camera and Presto! Vancouver becomes Mongo. And did I miss it or did they completely forget to actually give Zarkov's name?

[Earl Davis]

What a shame. Was looking forward to this being shown in the UK.

 

Earl.

[G.A.tor]

I missed it, being here in chicago, are there re run details?

rick

[Theagenes]

I missed it, being here in chicago, are there re run details?

rick

 

DATE TIME PROGRAM TITLE

08/11/2007 09:30 AM FLASH GORDON PILOT

08/12/2007 05:00 PM FLASH GORDON PILOT

08/13/2007 04:30 PM FLASH GORDON PILOT

08/15/2007 11:00 PM FLASH GORDON PILOT

08/16/2007 03:00 AM FLASH GORDON PILOT

08/17/2007 02:00 PM FLASH GORDON PILOT

 

Those are eastern times, so if you're in Chicago there's one starting right now. I have a feeling there's other things on agenda this morning though.

 

Jeff

 

[Theagenes]

So did anyone else here actually watch this atrocious train wreck of a show or was I the only one that wasted 90 minutes of his life?

 

I really wanted it to be good, too. Alex Raymond must be rolling over in his grave.

[CAP Freak]

I didn't watch it.... was it that bad?

[Theagenes]

I didn't watch it.... was it that bad?

 

It was terrible. Low-budget, poor writing, poor acting (for the most part), terrible special effects. It had almost no resemblence to any previous incarnation of Flash Gordon, except for the names of the characters. Flash lives with his mom, Zarkov is a creepy lab assistant that drives around in a Winnebago, and Ming looks like the suprevisor from Office Space.