So weird: a recap of the 'Wayward Pines' premiere

Hmm... the series begins with a close-up shot of a man's eye opening. He's somehow waking up in the middle of some type of jungle or forest. Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah. "LOST." They learn from the best. (Wink!) But yeah... ABC should sue.

***

With most of my TV shows now on hiatus, I have been dabbling around on Netflix, trying to find something new to watch. I tried AMC's Revolutionary War drama "Turn," but couldn't stay awake through the first episode. I tried the long-since-cancelled "Lie to Me," but, after seven episodes, I didn't feel like the story was going anywhere, so I think I've given up on that one, too. FOX's new 10-episode event "Wayward Pines" caught my eye a couple weeks ago, so I figured I'd give tonight's series premiere a shot. Of course, substantial spoilers will follow, so if you're interested in checking this show out, beware. Turn back now or face the facts. ... All right.

The story begins with Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) coming to his senses in the middle of the woods. He is bloody and delirious as he staggers into the nearest town - Wayward Pines, Idaho.

Feeling the effects of a head-on collision with a semi-truck (as we find out via flashback), Ethan stumbles into a bar, asks a few incoherent questions and passes out on the floor. He wakes up in the Wayward Pines Hospital, where a creepily cheery nurse attends to him. She explains that his personal effects, including his wallet and cell phone, are being held at the sheriff's office. Ethan demands to make a phone call to his wife, but the nurse won't allow it. She and a psychiatrist named Dr. Jenkins that we meet later on in the episode strongly believe that Ethan has suffered a serious head injury and is bleeding on the brain. It requires surgery, they say. (By the way, Dr. Jenkins is totally Toby Jones, that Hydra dude from Captain America.)

Throughout the episode, we see many flashbacks of Ethan's previous life. We learn that he is a secret service agent and was traveling to Idaho on business, looking for two missing co-workers. One of the missing persons, a female named Kate, was previously Ethan's partner. It is briefly shown that they were at least somewhat romantically involved - a fact that Ethan's wife appears to have been aware of. At the time of the car crash, Ethan was traveling with another agent, surnamed Stallings. Agent Stallings died in the crash, as far as we know. Representatives at the Secret Service headquarters in Seattle, Washington, report that Stallings' remains were so burned that it took authorities two days to identify him. Oddly, there appears to have been no evidence that Ethan was even in the car at the time of impact, contrary to the flashback that shows Stallings and Ethan get hit by the semi. Weird.

A little more information about Ethan: he had been attending counseling to deal with some post-traumatic stress that had to do with an incident where 621 people lost their lives. We don't know much about that situation at this point, but Ethan feels incredibly guilty and believes that their blood is very much on his hands, so to speak. He seems to have had occasional or frequent hallucinations and has apparently had at least a relapse or two.

Back at the hospital, Ethan has regained enough strength to get up and walk out. As he heads for the door, the creepy nurse catches up to him and tries to prevent him from leaving, going so far as to stick her foot in the elevator door. She ultimately lets him leave, but mentions that she is very worried about him.

Ethan heads back to the bar, where he orders a burger, borrows a phone to attempt to call his wife and chats up the bartender, Beverly. While speaking with Beverly, Ethan tries to get his bearings and figure out what on earth is going on. She seems friendly enough, covering the cost of his meal (since he doesn't have a wallet) and slipping him a note instead of his receipt. The note contains two things: 1) an address and 2) a cryptic message, saying "There are no crickets in Wayward Pines." Upon leaving the bar, Ethan hears a cricket chirping. He follows the sound and finds a small speaker hidden in a bush, from which the sound emanates. Weird.

When Ethan heads to the address left for him by Beverly, he finds a rickety, seemingly abandoned house. One would think it quite unwise to approach - and enter - such a residence, but, of course, he does it anyway. Surely, this ain't Beverly's house. No, no. It's abandoned, all right. And he finds the body of one of the missing Secret Service agents in the bedroom. He's dead. He's decaying. And he was handcuffed to the headboard, tortured, by the looks of it.

Ethan saunters on over to the sheriff's office, where he's greeted by a creepy ol' receptionist. So many creeps in this town! He eventually gets to meet the sheriff, himself - Arnold Pope (Terrence Howard), who devotes the majority of his attention to his rum raising ice cream cone. He doesn't give any credence to the theory that Ethan's wallet and phone are being kept in his office, nor does he frankly give a crap about the news that Ethan found the decomposing body of a missing federal agent a couple blocks down the road. Weird.

It turns out that Beverly no longer works at the bar. Nope. When Ethan heads back over there to speak with her again, there's some other guy there who claims that there are no female bartenders in Wayward Pines. Ethan starts breaking down a little bit and nearly comes to blows with the guy, but the younger, quicker and likely more prepared bartender swiftly knocks out Ethan, sending him back to the hospital - but not before whipping out a walkie-talkie and letting somebody know that they've got a big problem with the town's newest visitor.

Back at the hospital (again), the creepy nurse and Dr. Jenkins tell Ethan they're going to operate on his brain. The surgeon in Boise said they should, but they won't let Ethan speak with anyone in Boise. They've got to operate now. The nurse jabs Ethan in the leg with a sedative and wheels him up to the operating room... But he's saved by Beverly the Bartender, who gets Ethan out of there without anybody noticing. Before the sedative kicks in, Ethan is able to outfox the nurse, who is in hot pursuit and he knocks her basically unconscious from behind. Beverly helps Ethan make it to a safehouse, where they have a brief conversation before he falls asleep yet again. In that conversation, we learn that Beverly was also in a mysterious accident before being brought to Wayward Pines. She was hit by a motorcycle in 1999 and has been in the community ever since. Next week will be her anniversary, marking what she says will be her one-year mark. So... apparently this show takes place in the year 2000. Oh wait. Ethan, confused, tells Beverly that it's 2014. Weird.

Ethan comes to and makes his way outside, out in the public, where anybody could see him. It's a wonder the Wayward Pines P.D. isn't going all "America's Most Wanted" on our dear protagonist at this point. He stumbles over to a neighborhood barbecue, where he is pretty sure he spots his former partner, Kate. She looks a bit older and with longer hair, but she looks happy, friendly and quite popular with the locals. He tails her and her husband, apparently?, to their home, which says "Ballinger" on the mailbox. He knocks on the door and asks for Kate by name. The husband seems perturbed, but calls Kate to the door. Ethan reminds her that they know each other, but she seems pretty oblivious to it all, but asks her husband for a moment. She steps outside and hushedly tells Ethan, "They're watching us. And listening." She tells him that she has been living happily in Wayward Pines for 12 years. But... that's impossible, says Ethan. They were together five weeks ago. Weird. Before she goes back inside, she turns and says, "You could be happy here, Ethan. You could have an amazing life here." As a last-ditch effort to get information out of her, he asks Kate if he is having another mental relapse. She silently shakes her head, no.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, the Secret Service agent who had been in contact with Ethan's wife (letting her know that there was an accident, etc.) is greeting by none other than that weirdo, Dr. Jenkins, the psychiatrist from the Wayward Pines Hospital! The agent, Adam, tells Dr. Jenkins that, if there's still time, he wants "to call it off." Jenkins responds, saying that it is already done and he has nothing to worry about. Weird.

Burke steals a car and takes off, attempting to leave Wayward Pines, but, just as soon as he passes the sign thanking him for visiting, he soon thereafter passes a different sign, welcoming him back! He flips back around and leaves the city again. This time, he stops the car, gets out and makes his way to the forest, then makes his way up a rocky ridge. At the top of the ridge is a giants electric fence with a sign that says "Risk of death: Return to Wayward Pines. Beyond this point you will die." As the camera zooms out, that fence might as well be the dang Great Wall of Wayward Pines. Burke is stuck - and it looks like Wayward Pines is the in stinkin' middle of nowhere, enclosed by a gigantic crater in the mountainside. He heads back to the car and quickly finds that the sheriff is camped out right behind him. "You didn't make it too far, didya?" "How do I get out of here?" "You don't."

***

Oh man. Well, there you go. That's the recap of "Wayward Pines," Episode 1. I'm not gonna lie, there were a couple times when I whimpered like a scared dog. I don't really like freaky stuff like this, but I think I'll probably be back again next Thursday to see what the heck is going on in Wayward Pines. Obviously, there were a lot more questions raised in the pilot episode than there were answers given. Like... what's up with the phones? I'm pretty sure they don't work outside of the community. If you watched the show, you know who Marcie, the brand new receptionist for the Secret Service is. Allegedly. There's no way Marcie actually works there. She was probably a couple doors down in some secret room. How was Ethan's wife not getting any of his calls? Why are there no crickets? Why does Beverly think it's 2000? How has Kate been there for 12 years? Is the Secret Service in on this? Obviously Adam has some connection, but what is it? And, most importantly of all, is Ethan nuts or is this just the weirdest community in America? Oh man. It's crazy and it's cooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky - the "Wayward Pines" premiere.

***

What did you think? Did you watch? Are you interested in watching now? If you haven't already watched, why did you read this spoiler-laden blog? Who knows? Maybe it got you interested and you're going to check it out now. Hmm... Anyway, if you watched the show, I'd love to get your comments, questions and feedback in the comments section below. If you'd rather not comment, well... then... whatever. Peace.

Netflix's "Daredevil": Marvel, all grown up

When Netflix and Marvel joined forces to launch their much-anticipated series "Daredevil" on April 10, my lingering lack of employment basically guaranteed that I would check it out, although Daredevil is far from my favorite superhero. In fact, I basically knew nothing about the dude, other than the fact that he's a blind lawyer vigilante and that the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck wasn't good. I don't seem to possess the eternal hatred for that film that many people do. I just simply remember that it wasn't great. I forgive them.

I realize that, in regards to the Netflix series, there are probably three groups of people out there right now: 1) people that binge-watched it faster than I did, 2) people who aren't interested at all and 3) those who aren't quite sure whether they should check it out or not. Well, already having done the heavy lifting of finishing Season One in a seven-day period, I figured I'd blog about it and give the fence sitters a pretty good idea of what to do next. I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

Here goes...

Here are a few reasons why you should watch "Daredevil":

• Jump right in!: If I learned anything during my time as an employee of Salt Lake Comic Con, it was that I know next-to-nothing about comicbooks. Thankfully, with "Daredevil," no real knowledge of the character or his backstory are prerequisite. Season One does a nice job of bringing viewers up-to-speed with the main characters, including a lot of the "origin stories" of its two main characters, Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Wilson Fisk (Kingpin). If you're not a smart pants know-it-all, that's pretty much fine. You don't need to be.
  
  
• The more, the better!: Marvel is basically brilliant. Obviously. But the smartest thing they could have possibly ever done was to tie all of their movies and TV shows into the same cinematic universe, thus, making it practically essential to watch EVERYTHING if you want to know what's going on. For instance, I didn't make it past the pilot episode of ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Whether that's because I didn't buy in immediately or because I had way too many other shows preoccupying me is debatable, but, nevertheless, I still, to this day, have not seen Episode Two. However, I hear that the big H.Y.D.R.A. twist in Captain America: The Winter Soldier completely shook up "Agents." The way the movie influenced the TV show (from what I have heard) makes me want to go back and watch it. Similarly, "Daredevil" takes place in the same Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as is evident from a few comments about the attack on New York (from The Avengers), and there were a couple references to Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, which I loved. It would be awesome if Daredevil showed up in Captain America: Civil War or The Infinity War. Will Daredevil make the crossover to the big screen? I'm not sure - but if he did, that would be totally rad.
  
  
  
• Fantastic casting: I have no idea who Charlie Cox is. He's been in a bunch of stuff I have never heard of, nor seen. But he does a great job as Matt Murdock. While I actually prefer him in costume as Daredevil, he's a solid pick for the show's lead. His on-screen buddy, Foggy Nelson is played by Elden Henson, another virtual unknown who I only recognized because he's the Avox cameraman in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I, which I just watched the other day. ... Waid, what?? He's FULTON REED FROM THE MIGHTY DUCKS?!? Oh man! Why did I not realize this?? That's hilarious! Anyway, he's decent. Not my favorite character on the show, but man... One of the Bash Brothers! That's incredible. Arguably the best-cast character on the show is the villainous Wilson Fisk (better known as Kingpin). Vincent D'Onofrio (of Men in Black fame) is spot on as one of Marvel's most notorious criminals. From his physical appearance to his fighting style, D'Onofrio is superb, in my opinion - a perfect choice for a role that it feels like he was born to play. They do such a good job with him that you even start feeling bad for the son of a gun a couple times. Ugh. Sickening.
  
  
• A quick fix: Merely 13 episodes long, Season One is a quick watch. If you're looking for something to pass the time with, "Daredevil" doesn't require an obscene time commitment and you should easily be able to blow through it in a week or two, depending on how much free time you have.
  
  

• It picks up steam: It took a little while for me to catch on, but when "Daredevil" gets rolling, around Episode Six or Seven, it's hard to turn it off. The law office stuff is a bit of a drag, in some cases, but as Murdock begins to truly embrace his vigilante habits of tracking down corrupt cops and whatnot, it gets fun to watch. Additionally, I loved the insight that the series gave to both Murdock and Fisk's childhoods - particularly Fisk's - which helps viewers build strong emotional connections (positively and negatively) to the characters. The final two or three episodes in the season are particularly good as Daredevil begins gaining allies in the fight against Fisk and his henchmen. Season Two should pick up right where this one leaves off - and if the season finale is any indication, it will be fascinating to see where Marvel and Netflix take the story from here.

On the other hand...

Remember how much fun you had watching Guardians of the Galaxy, busting a gut to the witty jokes and humming along with the fun soundtrack? Yeah. Forget all of that. This is not your mama's Marvel.

Here are a few reasons why "Daredevil" is definitely not a show for everyone:

• Suspend that disbelief: Firstly, I know it's just a show based on a comicbook. But seriously... That dude gets around really well for a blind guy. It's not a major problem, but there were quite a few times when I sat there and thought, "There's no way a blind dude could do that." Suspension of disbelief. I know. And I have no doubt that Murdock's other senses are greatly enhanced, due to the fact that he can't use his eyes. I don't know. It's just crazy. But what would I know about any of this, anyway?
  
  
• A bar of soap: That's what a lot of these characters need - and that's not a commentary on their personal hygiene. No, no. That's because they use some pretty dirty language throughout Season One. Suffice it to say that they love using the anatomical terminology. In fact, they utter the "d-word" so often that it's almost shocking to think that people in the real world actually speak that way. It's immature and really adds nothing to the show, as far as content is concerned. More intelligent writing could easily have avoided the frequent repetition of such words. The amount of profanity was silly, in my opinion.
  
  
  
• A bloody shame: The most important warning I can give Marvel fans (ESPECIALLY young ones) is that Netflix's "Daredevil" is incredibly violent. Unlike The Avengers and most of the other movies in the MCU, which are generally pretty blood-less, "Daredevil" absolutely earns its "TV-MA" rating. Essentially, every episode features gunplay, violence, kidnappings and gruesome murders of some kind. It's a very dark and bloody premise and the show doesn't hold back at all. I'm no stranger to shootouts and assassinations and the like - I've obviously seen my fair share of action movies - but there were several scenes in Season One where I had to look away from the screen, and even a time or two where the violence made me feel a little sick inside. So... just be warned, I guess, that this show is definitely not for the faint of heart. It's not one that I'd recommend watching with your family and certainly not with kids. I'm unsure whether the show would earn an R rating at the box office, but it's definitely a very strong PG-13... and you'll never look at a car door the same way again. Am I right, people? Ick!

Overall, I thought "Daredevil" Season One was pretty good. It's got very high-quality production value, so it looks and feels like it could be one gigantic movie. It's got an intriguing plot that ends up being rather gripping, despite its slow start, and introduces the world to two cool new characters in the Marvel canon. Heck, you might even like it so much that you'll be curious to go back and give Ben Affleck another chance.

I'm not sure I'd recommend that, though.

My final verdict is that I recommend "Daredevil" to fans of comicbooks and superhero programming that have the stomach to handle the violence and the tolerance to put up with some immature dialogue. What do you think? Are you going to give "Daredevil" a shot? Are you well enough off without it? Or have you already watched it? Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what your thoughts are.

Until next time...

In defense of Wrestlemania

From the top trend on Facebook to ESPN's Twitter feed, pro wrestling headlines have been all over the Internet in the past few days. World Wrestling Entertainment's annual Wrestlemania pay-per-view was held over the weekend, showcasing the top talent in the business on a more global scale than ever before. It's interesting to me that, with wrestling seemingly more popular in terms of fan base and viewership than ever before, the industry maintains its negative connotations and uncool reputation. Call me the devil's advocate, call me a loser, call me whatever you want... but I pro wrestling gets a bit of an unfair rap. Let me explain.

For those of you who aren't aware, I, like most young, American boys in the 1990s, had a decent amount of exposure to pro wrestling during one particular stretch of my childhood - in the midst of what pro wrestling historians call the "Monday Night War." Pro wrestling was a taboo topic back then, just as it is today, in the sense that if you watched it, you didn't really admit it to anybody. Heck, I wasn't supposed to watch it as a kid. Wrestling, along with "The Simpsons," "South Park" and a few other shows, had been banned from my household (and probably for good reason). There are just some shows that parents didn't want their kids watching. I am totally fine with that and don't resent my parents from the restrictions they placed on me and my siblings. But, from time to time when my parents were out for the night, I'd be flipping channels and catch a glimpse of some good, old-fashioned grappling. Violent though it was, there was something so intriguing about it. I don't remember exactly what I was thinking as a kid, but it just seemed cool, and I'd try to sneak in a few minutes of pro wrestling here and there when my channel surfing incidentally lined up with World Championship Wrestling's TV programming.

At one point during the height of the now-defunct WCW's popularity, Karl Malone, one of my favorite Utah Jazz players teamed up with a guy named Diamond Dallas Paige to fight against "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls. The surprising combination of forbidden fighting and my beloved basketball icon proved too good to resist and my brothers and I found ourselves sneakily tuning in to WCW Monday Nitro each week. Eventually - and, to this day, I have no idea how this happened - we convinced our parents to watch the Mailman and DDP feud with Hogan and The Worm as they geared up for a heated confrontation at WCW's Bash at the Beach pay-per-view in the summer of 1996. Believe it or not, it actually turned into a great family bonding experience. We ordered Bash at the Beach and a couple other PPV events over the course of the next several months and even invited some of our extended family to watch with us a couple times. (I'm sure they thought we were absolute morons.) A few months later, WCW hired some former WWE (then "WWF") writers and the storylines got a bit more "mature," I guess you'd say, and my family's short-lived affair came to an end. Honestly, it was a blast while it lasted. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

As a junior at Alta High School, I decided that I wanted to run for band president. As part of my unprecedented campaign (literally, I don't think anyone has ever tried so hard to become band president at any high school), I thought it would be funny to buy a plastic WWE championship belt and make a video portraying me training for the presidency, a la Rocky. I guess the concept kind of caught on and three additional wrestling belts eventually made their way to the sacred confines of the Alta High Band Room. Silly? Yes. But it worked. Again, I'm not ashamed to admit it. My buddies and I took the joke a step further and made a 30-minute mockumentary about a fictional pro wrestling tag team called "The Big Ticket." (In retrospect, I'm sure it was horrible, but we thought it was hilarious.) In 2010, we joined creative forces yet again to make an hour-long "Big Ticket" sequel. (Likely just as horrible, but twice as hilarious.)

As an LDS missionary in Raleigh, North Carolina, I was called to speak Spanish. Contrary to what you may believe or hear, learning a new language is not a total piece of cake. It takes effort. You don't leave the Missionary Training Center completely fluent in the new foreign tongue. Something that helped me tremendously in my learning efforts was speaking with little Hispanic children. They would make fun of me if I didn't speak the language very well, but they were a lot nicer about it than the adults were. I quickly came to realize that little Hispanic kids know a lot about three things in particular: soccer, school and pro wrestling. Thus, I found wrestling to be a pretty easy topic of conversation - something that I knew a little bit about and could use a bit of "Spanglish" in without sounding like an idiot. The kids loved talking about it, which was cool, but it also kept me somewhat up-to-date with which wrestlers were popular, which ones were doing well and, of course, which ones were the bad guys.

Now that I'm seven years removed from my mission, I don't have consistent access to the Rey Mysterio and John Cena fan clubs like I did in North Carolina, but I am savvy enough to spot WWE references in pop culture today. There are nods to pro wrestling (both modern and from the '80s and '90s) all over the place, if you know what to look for. It's somewhat amusing to me. I would incorporate some of the classic catch phrases as I did my college radio shows. In fact, the most popular segment of my show down in Ephraim was called the "KAGE Match" - a blatant nod to pro wrestling. I'm still not sure that any of my listeners understood that. It disappoints me.

Most recently, as I had the glorious privilege of working with Salt Lake Comic Con, I got a chance to meet the immortal Hulk Hogan - to take a picture with him, give him the nWo "wolf" hand gesture and to sit front row at his spotlight panel. It was awesome. I got a little bit of grief for it, but, as a kid who grew up in the '90s, meeting the Hulkster was like meeting one of the coolest guys on the planet. I suppose that today's equivalent might be... Chris Hemsworth or somebody like that? Whatever. It was really cool for me. Hulk still rules!

SO. With all of that context, it's not that I am a pro wrestling addict or something. More like I just know a lot about it. Anyway, I think I've got some valid points and pretty strong arguments for the case I'm about to make, so let me now explain why I don't think that pro wrestling is actually as bad as society purports it to be by listing a few common complaints I hear about the industry and then rebutting them in rather majestic fashion.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is fake."

You know what? It's scripted. Yes. Which is stupid because "Doctor Who" is REAL! Oh wait... No, it's not. Most shows on TV are scripted. This should not come as a shock to anyone. Certainly, to the untrained viewer, like my 10-year-old self back in the day, you bet I thought it was real. Heck, I even prayed that Karl Malone would beat Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach. (Side note: Hogan and Rodman cheated to win. I got really upset and have never prayed for the outcome of a sporting event since.) I'm positive that WWE takes great lengths to ensure that their programming looks and feels real (or unscripted), but... can you blame them? Would you want your favorite TV program to come right out and say, "Hey, everyone, our show isn't real! Look at all these green screens! And here: meet the stunt doubles!" Of course you wouldn't want that! Every show and movie that you watch wants to look real, even though it is clearly fictional. Yes, pro wrestling is scripted. But so is everything else.

Furthermore, those steel chairs can't dent themselves, now, can they? I submit to you that they cannot. There is no denying that these guys (and chicks) that put their bodies on the line each time they step in the ring are a rare, freaky combination of incredibly athletic and certifiably crazy. No stunt doubles, no CGI, no wires. You can pull all the punches and kicks you want, but there is some stuff you just can't fake.

If you've been paying attention to the top Facebook trends in the past week and a half or so, you'll have seen that Rey Mysterio Jr., the first guy I ever remember watching in the squared circle, recently killed a guy during one of his matches. Literally. The guy passed away. Of course, this was an accident, an unintended consequence of a move likely gone wrong, but I dare you to go find that guy's mom and tell him that pro wrestling is fake. I dare you.

On the other hand, you've got UFC and MMA, which is real. Have you ever watched UFC or MMA? That stuff is brutal! I can barely bring myself to watch the highlights from time to time. Thank heaven pro wrestling isn't real! The number of injuries, broken bones and in-ring deaths would multiply considerably and that entire industry would get shut down in a heartbeat.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is too violent."

Going back to a point I brought up in my exposition, I know why my parents didn't want me to watch pro wrestling. I understand why I stopped watching "Power Rangers" and couldn't play any of the "Mortal Kombat" video games. Violence is not the answer to a vast majority of life's problems. The worst thing about wrestling is that it teaches young viewers that the best way to resolve a problem or to take out your frustration is by beating the tar out of your enemies. That's not good.

But at least they're not out there shooting each other with guns or chopping each other's heads off.

Take a look at some of the popular network dramas on TV today. Shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investiagtion," "Law & Order" and "Criminal Minds" are all about gruesome depictions of violence and the aftermath of crimes like murder, rape and domestic abuse. I stopped watching "The Walking Dead" after two and a half seasons because it got to the point where I figured I had seen enough zombies get their skulls split in two by machetes. There are other programs like "Game of Thrones," "Dexter," "Hannibal" and a host of others that I don't dare venture into because I'm afraid they'll be too intense for me. On the other hand, do you know what "WWE Raw" is rated? TV-PG. I was a WCW fan and never got into the WWF "Attitude Era" with the Rock, the Undertaker and D-Generation X, but today's pro wrestling is incredibly mild by comparison. Wrestlers rarely get busted open these days, so blood is at an all-time low. Male and female wrestlers cannot compete against each other, due to the company's stance on violence against women. Long gone are the profanity-laden tyrades of villains like the bird-flipping "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Vince McMahon and company understand that their fan base consists of, largely, 35-year-old guys and 8-year-old kids, and, following the deaths of superstars like Eddie Guerrero and "The Rabid Wolverine" Chris Benoit, they've made appropriate adjustments to the nature of their entertainment to keep the show as family-friendly as possible. I'd go so far as to say that WWE programming is substantially tamer than your average weeknight TV drama.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is for losers."

This is probably the main complaint I heard as an employee of Salt Lake Comic Con. Wrestling has been included in a couple of the conventions in the last year and a half, including appearances by Hulk Hogan and "divas" Maryse and Kelly Kelly. Most controversially, at Salt Lake Comic Con 2014, a local, independent wrestling group brought in a ring and hosted occasional matches in the middle of the vendor floor.

People hated that ring for a couple reasons: 1) it was big, 2) it was loud, and 3) it was pro wrestling. I found these complaints somewhat humorous for a couple reasons. First of all, as with anything, if you don't like it, don't watch it. But secondly - and mainly - for a group of people who pride themselves on being all-inclusive of people of any interest or "fandom," as they call it, it was funny to hear the comic con attendees be so judgmental of those who like pro wrestling. So... apparently it's ok for a dude to like "My Little Pony" but not Hulk Hogan? Wow. (Side note: I have never been more ridiculed in my life for being a sports fan than I was as a comic con employee, which I found to be very strange.)

One thing I learned at comic con was that lots of different people like lots of different things - and that's totally ok. Some people like Marvel and some people like DC. Some people like both and some like neither of the two. It's fine! It doesn't matter what other people like! Just be yourself and like what makes you happy. Whether that's aliens or vampires or sweaty guys throwing each other around a wrestling ring, it's totally fine to be a fan of anything in the world... As long as it's not, you know, committing crimes in the real world or going against your religion or whatnot...

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I'll stop there, I think. If you made it this far into the blog, I offer you a hearty congratulations. I'm not here to sway your opinion one way or the other. I'm not here saying I freaking love the WWE and watch every second of their programming (because I don't). I have just always found it interesting that we put such a negative label on something that, by the entertainment standards of the day, is actually not all that violent, profane or out-of-the-ordinary. I'm just simply here to ask, "Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you, brother?" Hopefully your response will be a little more open-minded and less judgmental than it has been in the past.

And if you subscribed to the WWE Network for $9.99 to watch Wrestlemania last night, your secret is safe with me.

FanX 15 - "Great Scott!": Christopher Lloyd on the inspiration behind Doc Brown

One of my favorite parts about Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 was the opportunity I had to sit on the front row during Christopher Lloyd’s panel on the second morning of the convention. The Back to the Future trilogy was a huge part of my childhood, so seeing Doc Brown, live and in person, was amazingly awesome for me. I just wish I would have been more prepared to snag a less-blurry picture of him holding up the iconic Mattel hoverboard (which he emphatically proclaimed “wouldn’t work”).

Now, it dawned on me about three quarters of the way through the panel that I should probably have been taking notes or recording some audio so I could blog about it later, so there’s some good news and some bad news here: The bad news is that I didn’t record or write down anything for about 40 minutes, but the good news is that I did record a couple answers that he gave toward the end of the hour.

One question that begged a noteworthy response was an inquiry as to the origin of Doc Brown’s eccentricity. For the sake of his reputation, with which I’m practically not even worthy to touch, I’m not going to paraphrase, sum up or adjust any of his response. I’ll simply include it all –starting at the point where I began recording – and let Mr. Lloyd take it from there. He began by talking about Albert Einstein, noting the wild hairstyle and vastly superior intellect and we’ll join his response right there, mid-sentence:

“…E = MC², and so forth… Extraordinary. Albert Einstein went on a travel across the ocean in a big ship liner and they found… Here’s the genius of his time… and they couldn’t find him; somehow he’d disappeared and they were worried about, “Where was he? What happened to him? Where’s Albert?” And they went down to the bottom of a hole, where, you know… the lowest people were living down there, who couldn’t afford… they were the bottom deck. And he was there, playing with a pinball machine. Who’d have thunk, you know? And the other image I had – I feel maybe I’m going on a little too much about this – was the… I love classical music. I grew up with it around the… [interrupted by applause] …And there was a great doctor by the name of Leopold Stokowski. He was a conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra – wonderful – and he did a lot of innovative interpretations of Bach and other music… All right. There was a piece he did called ‘Planets,’ a classical piece, where each planet is described in music, describing that planet’s mythical association, like the planet Mars. Music was picked that was very ‘military’ and harsh. Venus, the goddess of love, etc… I had that recording and it showed the solar system on the jacket. This was back when you had records [laughs]… and Leopold Stokowski had his arms raised, with the baton in his hand… He had this shock-white hair coming behind him in his profile. That was a lot of my image of Doc Brown. I remember my father looked at that jacket and he said, ‘I’m sure he’s a great musician, but does he have to have his hair like that?’”

Seeing Mr. Lloyd was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Let’s be honest, though he defied the laws of aging on-screen for so long, it was somewhat apparent to me that the guy is getting older. Who knows how much longer we’ll have him around? But, for the time being, I can say from personal experience that the man is a legend – a national treasure. His roles in movies like Back to the Future and Clue have provided me with years of laughter and enough classic one-liners to impress (and, likely, annoy) my friends for a lifetime. (…not to mention the fact that his role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit gave me nightmares throughout my entire childhood!)

Here’s to you, Christopher Lloyd! Thanks for the memories.

FanX 15 - One-on-One with "Good Cop" Glenn Morshower

Actor Glenn Morshower didn’t come to Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 in January with much of the same pomp and circumstance as headliners like Matt Smith and Billie Piper of the BBC’s cult hit “Doctor Who” or with a fan base equal to that of fandom-driven idolatry like Harry Potter’s Tom Felton and Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher. He came humbly, quietly and unceremoniously.

That’s the way I found him at the pre-convention press conference.

Morshower is best known for portraying an staggering number of military personas on film and television. In fact, as he quickly pointed out, he has played more military roles than any other actor. Ever.

“That’s living or dead,” Morshower told me. “That’s an IMDb fact – and I’ve actually spent more time in uniform than most people in the actual military, so I think parts of me wake up in the morning and wonder if I am in the military.”

Although Morshower was never in the military, himself, he largely attributes his on-screen presence, backbone and stern nature, as seen in movies like Pearl Harbor, X-Men: First Class, Black Hawk Down and the Transformers franchise, to his upbringing; he was raised by his step-father, who he referred to as “a lifer Navy guy.”

IMDb credits Morshower with nearly 200 roles in films, TV shows and video games, including appearances in hit military and political dramas like “JAG,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “NCIS,” “Alias,” the rebooted “Hawaii Five-O,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and many, many more, but there is one role that Morshower easily claims as his all-time favorite:

“Bar none, my role as head of the Secret Service, Aaron Pierce, on ‘24’ for seven years,” Morshower replied confidently. “He is the nearest and dearest to my heart. I believe in everything that that character stands for, so, basically, I said to the producers, ‘Let me get this straight – you want to pay me to play me?’ I enjoyed that immeasurably, light-years beyond anything else, not to mention that it was the ultimate family… the highest bar I’ve ever seen set.”

Another role came to mind, as well.  “ I did three years on ‘The West Wing,’” he commented. “Both shows [“24” and “The West Wing”] … their bar for excellence was through the roof – and, unless you brought your A-game, you simply were not welcome there. […] I like working in that kind of an environment.”

While he pointed out that he hasn’t minded being typecast into a specific type of role in so many different movies and TV shows, he did mention to me that he got about a year and a half ago where he felt like he had “done it to death” and began to seek out other types of characters.

“I’m just not interested in doing [military roles right now] because I want to be seen in other lights,” Morshower told me. “So this year, it was kind of a ‘bucket list’ year for me because the three roles I wanted to play – which were a serial killer, a flamboyantly gay character and the president of the United States – all three roles came about within a four-month period of time. … So I’m getting out there and returning to what originally got me into the craft[: …] the ability to transform into a completely different human being. But the old saying about being typecast is, people say, ‘Do you mind being typecast?’… My answer is, ‘No, I mind being not cast,’ because my wife and I were able to put our kids through college on typecasting, so I have no problem with typecasting.”

You may recognize some of Morshower’s prominent non-military roles in movies like Moneyball and TV shows that included “Friday Night Lights,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “The Secret World of Alex Mack” and “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

Despite his gruff on-screen exterior, deep down inside, Morshower is like a giant teddy bear. I asked him what he liked the most about doing pop culture conventions and, to be honest, his answer surprised me.

“The people. Just the people. I love giving folks hugs and, more often than not, people don’t want to shake my hand – they want to hug me, and I dig that… ‘Dig’ is a word from the ‘60s… And I do because there’s something very powerful about embracing another human being who has waited in a very long line to meet you. In many instances, you know, they’ve flown from God-only-knows where and I think we have, really, a moral responsibility to be fully present and engaging of every single person that walks to our table. (And I don’t mind this being recorded…) I can’t stand working with jerks! I can’t stand it! I can’t stand actors that don’t reach out and embrace people. I can’t stand being next to actors who think they’re doing you a huge favor by merely showing up. … You’re an actor. So what? Someone sweeps the streets, someone makes cones at Dairy Queen, you’re an actor. That’s what you’ve chosen to do, but that doesn’t mean that you are more special… I think that we are all of equal importance and the fact that we’re treated specially doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’m honored to be there with others. I think it is the greatest business in the world and I also think it’s the worst business. And the worst business aspect of it comes to… it is the worst business to get into if you’re going into it in search of your self-esteem, because then you’ll believe anything that anybody tells you, and if they tell you that you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, you walk around believing it and then you live as though you’re better than others, which is a nightmarishly ugly thing to be around. So, I just love people, period. I’m glad to be here.”

Then I asked him if I could give him a hug. He happily obliged.

FanX 15 - Ireland Reid, Queen of the Nerds

Costume designer Ireland Reid said that she stumbled into an opportunity that changed her life. After 15 years of designing outfits for fitness competitors, she came across a chance to create and wear her own costume at a comic con event. “Everything just kind of fell in place from then,” Reid told me while at Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 in January. Now a popular cosplayer, model and geek girl extraordinaire, she travels the world, appearing at comic and pop culture conventions as a featured guest.

“I get to travel all over […] the world, basically, showing and creating and designing costumes based upon cosplay characters that I’ve actually grown up with and learned to love and appreciate,” Reid said. “It’s pretty exciting.” Some of Reid’s most popular and well-recognized costumes include Batman nemesis Poison Ivy, Star-Lord of Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men’s Emma Frost, Jessica Rabbit and outfits inspired by the popular Harry Potter and Assassin’s Creed franchises. When I asked her how many cosplay outfits she had, in total, she responded that she had “completely lost track,” but has a room full of mannequins with costumes on them.

Reid loves creating Pokémon-themed costumes, as well. Aside from her iconic Pikachu and Pichu costumes, she has several other stylish outfits, including a jewel-encrested Shiny Eevee outfit, which she debuted in Salt Lake City.

“This is a never-before-seen costume,” Reid said, describing her Shiny Eevee. “It’s actually been done for three months, so I was pretty excited to get it out and [have it] see the light of day.”

While she was thrilled to debut her new costume, there was one thing that Reid was not excited about – the cold Utah weather. It was the California native’s second trip to the Beehive State, but she had never experienced wintertime in Utah. “I’m from Southern California,” she said. “It was around 80 degrees when I left, so this is a change.” (Full disclosure: 40 degrees feels like summer in January for Salt Lake City residents, so if she was trying to avoid snow and really cold weather, she picked the right January to visit.) She did have some nice very things compliments about Utah, however, saying, “I absolutely love this city. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. Everyone is super friendly and nice. I love it.”

Reid maintains an incredibly busy schedule, cramming in all of her modeling, prop making, costume designing, acting and a slew of other social media shenanigans. While she maintains a cool, professional demeanor when appearing at conventions, Reid’s bubbly, ultra-nerdy personality is perhaps most best showcased on her YouTube channel, where she uploads videos when her limited availability permits. Reid explained that her videos cover a wide variety of topics. “I do unveils for [subscription services] Nerd Block, Loot Crate [and] Arcade Block,” she said. “I also do … a lot of skits – kind of funny or humorous – and then a lot of behind the scenes of how I make some of my cosplays.”

Ireland Reid’s official social media accounts include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram, and her prints and a more detailed biography can be found on her official website, Store Envy and NerdGlam.com.

FanX 15 - Jim Cummings: The Voices of a Generation

Since the mid-1980s, Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 guest Jim Cummings has been the voice of a generation, providing some of the most iconic voices in all of animation. His vocal presence was practically unavoidable in throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, lending the sound behind classic cartoon characters like Disney’s infamous Pete, the Tazmanian Devil of Looney Tunes fame, the Rescue Rangers’ Monterrey Jack, TaleSpin villain Don Karnage and a slew of deep-voiced announcers and narrators. He also provided voices for major characters in animated series like “Bonkers,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “CatDog,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “The Tick,” “Earthworm Jim,” “Timon & Pumbaa,” “House of Mouse” and, literally, hundreds more. But of his 438 credited roles on IMDb, Cummings is best known for his legendary portrayal of Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger, too).

When asked whether creating and performing so many different voices was difficult, Cummings told Salt Lake Comic Con, “Well, we are schizophrenic and, uh… we are, too, so we don’t mind it at all. We have a good time with it and the voices in my head are all nodding up and down. They’re all smiling,” he said with a laugh. “So, I think it’s good. I think the answer is – what is it like? – pretty darn good.”

Cummings began developing his skill at a very young age. “I’ve been terminally annoying since the age of four, so I’m really getting good at this,” he said. “It’s just one of those things that I just fell into and people started laughing, and I figure, ‘Well, that’s better than having them beat the heck out of me…’ So I just stuck with it.”

If his experience with live-action performance is any indication, Cummings will be sticking to doing voice work for the foreseeable future. He recalled one of his first impressions of Hollywood: hanging out with Bob Hoskins and Robert Zemeckis on the set of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for which he helped develop several of the Weasels, originally, and later ended up as the voice for “Bullet #2.” During this experience, he realized that the live-action work seemed to be a lot of “Hurry up” and “Wait…”, noticing that actors would often sit in their trailers for three hours before heading to the set to recite four lines.

He specifically remembered rehearsing one exhausting scene on the set at Griffith Park in Los Angeles until 4:00 in the morning – and then, to his disappointment, the entire scene was cut from the film! At that point, chuckling, Cummings thought, “Hand me the microphone, please. I don’t have to be in my trailer; my trailer is everywhere!”

Cummings landed the role that, arguably, has defined his career in the late-‘80s when ABC and Disney sought out to find the next voice of Winnie the Pooh. He described that life-changing experience:

“At the time, it was 1987 and there hadn’t been any ‘Winnie the Pooh’ since the early ‘60s. But the original two or three that they made that were really great and everybody loved them – they won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short, I guess – [but then] they went away for like 25 years. So, at that point, Winnie the Pooh wasn’t as prevalent, if you will. But then ABC and Disney got together and started casting for it and Sterling Holloway (God rest his soul – he’s no longer with us), well, he had retired; he was very old – close to 90, I believe – so he wasn’t coming back to drive all the way up to Hollywood to do that (or Burbank). So they cast out a net and they caught me and I’m so proud and happy and the rest is sort of history.

“At that time, Paul Winchell was still doing Tigger (and, you know… rest in peace, as well) and he had been going back and forth… He was quite something; he was an inventor, an innovator, he came up with the prototype for the artificial heart, you know, and Tigger. Of course, it’s a logical career progression. He was doing research and going back and forth, so I was Tigger half the time and then, bless his heart, he had a terrible stroke […] and he just couldn’t do it anymore, so they said, ‘All right, you’re Tigger, too.’ So I got Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, too.”

Cummings and the voices in his head were an enormous hit at FanX ’15, as he and fellow voice actors Jess Harnell and Rob Paulsen rose to superstar status in Salt Lake City. Their first combined panel, a Harry Potter script reading, was filled to capacity and prompted Salt Lake Comic Con co-founder Dan Farr to book an encore performance in the South Ballroom on Saturday. The ballroom was packed as Harnell, Paulsen and Cummings read lines from The Sorcerer’s Stone in the voices of their most beloved characters, including a show-stopping portrayal of the evil Lord Voldemort, done in the voice of the innoncent, hunny-loving Winnie the Pooh.

Cummings said that he enjoyed his time in Utah. “It’s been fantastic,” he said. “I love the hotel, love the staff, love the Con. Everybody putting it on is great and I say, ‘Full speed ahead!’” Then he closed his remarks in the style of the world’s most famous crime-fighting mallard: “If Darkwing Duck were here, he would say, ‘I am the terror that flaps in the night – and it’s good to get out and flap in the day every now and then, so I’d just say, ‘Keep flappin’!... for justice, of course.’ But… let’s get dangerous!”