So Random! Vs All That

A couple of years ago, when Sonny with a Chance was announced, some people noticed that there was a sketch show involved, and All That was also a sketch show. Some people also noticed that Brian Robbins, who was involved with All That, was on board for Sonny with a Chance. A couple of months ago, when Demi Lovato announced that she wouldn’t be on season 3 of Sonny with a Chance, Disney announced that they would make Sonny with a Chance become the show-within-a-show So Random!, instead of focusing on the other characters. This lead to more comparisons to All That. And now, with The ‘90s are all that, people can’t help but compare these two shows.

Although everyone agrees that All That is better, there aren’t many clear reasons why. One of these might just be that it was better because it’s older. Here are my thoughts on why All That was better.

• The cast members were younger. According to Wikipedia, only one member, Lori Beth Denberg, was eighteen at the start of the show. And she was the oldest. However, in So Random! four of the five cast members are over eighteen. I think they’re all at least 20, too. While age shouldn’t affect quality, it sort of feels like the adult cast members want to move on from a Disney kidcom.
• All That isn’t the result of a star leaving their vehicle. So Random! would probably be better if it wasn’t just Disney’s chance at keeping the SwaC franchise alive. Like, if the Disney powers that be would just have So Random! from the start, it would probably be (or at least feel) more natural.
• Disney’s priority isn’t comedy. Okay, neither is Nickeldoden’s probably, but Disney cares more for making the next big thing (Miley Cyrus/ High School Musical Cast, anyone?). They also care more for making money.
• All That had more cast members. I believe in season 1 they had 7, while So Random! has 5. Most of the time in So Random! they need to use people outside of the five. If they added more cast members, that would be nice.
• The All That cast members kept their names. I’m not even kidding. In So Random!, the actors still go by their characters’ names (i.e., Sterling is called Chad whenever they’re no sketch, Doug is called Grady, etc.).

So Random! doesn’t suck as much as everyone says it does (Though I have a high tolerance of kidcoms, as long as it’s not Shake it Up! or Victorious). However, they have big shoes to fill. Especially considering there’s one less cast member.

The Battle of the Labyrinth Review

This week, I read The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I bought the book in April 2010, so I figured that it would be a good time to read it. :P And guess what? This book doesn’t count for my summer reading, although the first book in the series does. That’s just more support for my “Summer Reading isn’t useless, just extremely unorganized” theory.

I’d love to compare this book to the other books in the series, but I barely remember most of them. I read the second book, The Sea of Monsters, around three and a half years ago. I read the first book, The Lightning Thief, three years ago (Yay for reading things out of order!), and again last year. I read the third book, The Titan’s Curse, three years ago, too. So I could only accurately compare this book to The Lightning Thief.

The first book was more ‘coming-of-age’-y. Like, it related to things like growing up, suddenly having adult responsibilities, not fitting in, and so on. It sort of taught lessons to kids. This book, though, didn’t have lessons. It was just action, if that makes sense. That didn’t really affect the quality of the book. The only thing I noticed was that the ending didn’t have something for me to remember when I finished reading if that makes sense. Like Carrie sort of reminds people not to bully, as does Nineteen Minutes. But this book sort of just ends.

Grover and Tyson, Percy’s not-Half-Blood sidekicks, were annoying as always in this book. I don’t know why I couldn’t stand them. I never have liked either of them at all. They’re just so annoying for no reason in particular. There was a part in the book where Tyson and Grover got lost for a couple of chapters, which was nice. Highlight for spoilers.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a girl from one of the earlier books (I don’t know which one), has a bigger role in the story. She’s sort of a foil to Annabeth, because she’s sort of a ‘go with the flow’ person, while Annabeth is more organized.

This book gets really confusing if you don’t know Greek mythology that well. I vaguely remember the twelve Olympians’ roles, but there were still lots of parts of the book which were confusing.

This book wasn’t the best book in the series. There were lots of parts which just dragged on and on. However, if you want to finish this series, or if you’re interested in mythology, then I’d recommend it.

And I just looked up the series on Wikipedia. Apparently, they’re going to be filming the sequel. I don’t know why, really. The first movie was good as a standalone movie, but unfaithful to the book. It made the trio seventeen years old, which is really annoying, seeing as there was a prophecy in the book which stated “Once Percy (OR any other child of Poseidon, Zeus, or Hades) turns sixteen, he will either destroy the world or save it”. Also, Annabeth, who was blonde in the book, was played by a brunette actress, when they could’ve just as easily used Anna Sophia Robb or Dakota Fanning. Or they could’ve used a wig. Plus, two of the three actors for the trio are older than twenty. So by the time they’d finish the movies, one actor would be twentysomething, and the other two would be thirtysomething. And they’re supposed to be playing teenagers.

Plus, the movie didn’t get great reviews, because people were just calling it a Harry Potter knockoff. I haven’t seen or read Harry Potter, so I can’t comment on that.

Late Night

I’ve been playing in Late Night for a while, and I’m a bit impressed. As much as EA sucks (And I find new reasons to hate them everyday), this game isn’t completely horrible. Yeah, sure, I haven’t explored everything fully yet, so this will probably change later.

Things I like

• New Skills
  • Now, Sims who I feel could be musicians don’t have to be limited to the guitar. The Symphony career makes sense now! Sure, I'll probably never make another Sim garden or fish because of the new music skills, but oh well.
  • Mixology seems like a fun skill. Then again, after having the same old skills for a while, I’m okay with any new skill.
• New Objects
  • The Nightclub stuff (Strobe light, Disco ball thing Which I totally forgot the name of, special effect machine, and dance floor) are nice, because now clubs could actually look like clubs.
  • The hot tubs! These were some of the only stuff I remember positively from The Sims 2 Pets for the Wii (That needs an abbreviation).
  • I still don’t know how to put elevators in properly, but I think I’d like them if they functioned properly.
  • I’m okay with the fish tank being virtual, since I’m not too fond with the fishing skill.
  • The bubble bar is another must have for clubs.
  • The new couches, bathroom, and kitchen stuff look better than the base game ones.

       Things I don’t like

• Bridgeport
• I decided to play in Bridgeport because I didn’t feel like putting the clubs and stuff individually in a different town. Plus, I thought the penthouses and other features would be cool. The apartments weren’t really that great because of the whole ‘One household an apartment’ thing. Also, as big as it is, it’s impossible to put your own lots in the town, because of how little flat land there is.

Of course, these stuff probably vary based on how you play (Legacies, stories, one person households, etc.).

And when will EA confirm Generations? It’s been like a month since it’s been rumored, and we haven’t even heard if the trailer’s real or not.

TV Show King 2

A while back, I complained about the lack of good games for the Nintendo Wii. Mike suggested getting some Wii Ware games, like TV Show King. After researching it, I found out there was a sequel for it and decided to get that later. When my brother bought me 2000 Wii Points for Christmas, I decided to get it. Surprisingly, it was great.
The game has a lot of different elements from game shows, like the wheel (Wheel of Fortune), suitcases (Deal or No Deal). It also has a traditional question/answer format, like almost every other game show imaginable which has categories from general knowledge to sports, to science, and to literature.
The questions are good, and eclectic (I never thought I’d use that word in my blog). There are some easy questions, but there are some hard ones, too. It depends on what you know, though. If you keep up with movies and TV shows and stuff, those categories (probably) will be a breeze for you. There’s also a math section, which has pretty easy questions. If you’re a sports fanatic, then you’re in luck for those parts. Anyway, the questions are mixed. Unless you’re experts in all those areas, you probably won’t get all the questions right, which is good, because being in the lead all the time isn’t always fun. You could also make your own questions.
The wheel could change the entire game. That goes both ways, though. Most of the time, it will result to yelling at the game in a way similar to Mario Kart cursing, or cheering.
The graphics are pretty good, especially for a Wii game. There are lots of colors, and the Miis are well drawn, too.
Overall, this is a fun game. The only thing is that I couldn’t play on Wi-fi, but I’m not sure if it’s a technical problem, or if nobody else was playing at the time. It’s a fun party game, and it’s only for 800 Wii Points.

Carrie: The Review

I had to read Carrie by Stephen King for school. I enjoyed the book, but sadly, I can’t talk about what I liked about the book for my English class. I have to talk about the writing style and stuff like that. Since that’s no fun, I decided to write about what I thought of the book here.

Margaret White: She was such a creep. And a jerk. Ugh. Everything she did in the book was worth a facepalm. She didn’t even have a justifiable back story. She took “Lifetime movie woman” to a new extreme.

Chris: In my mind, I was yelling profanities at her whenever King was writing about her. Her boyfriend and her dad both knew about her ways, but didn’t really try to stop her? Really? By the end of the book, I just shrugged that she died.

Carrie: I’m not sure if she was supposed to be parodying angsty teenage girls for thinking of herself as ugly, yet at the prom she was pretty, but that’s what she came off as. She was the most sympathetic character in the book. I don’t get why at the end, she didn’t just kill Chris and the other bullies. She didn’t have to kill the entire population of Chamberlain. Especially if she could mind read and stuff. Why didn’t she just do that to know who was laughing at her? That was kind of a crappy move.

And on a semi-random note, I remembered this from the IJBM from TV tropes for Sabrina the Teenage Witch while reading Carrie going psycho on everyone:

"I know The Libby comes from this show and I was certainly tortured by enough girls like her in high-school, but I could never feel any satisfaction whenever Sabrina defeated her with magic. To me, bullying comes from an imbalance of power and since Sabrina is a pretty much an omnipotent goddess, it was her that came off as the bully when she used this advantage against a mortal high-school girl. On The Secret World Of Alex Mack, Alex, too, had magical powers but she refused on principle to use them for petty revenge against her Libby (The decent thing to do.) You know, in general, it just bugs me that on this show (following Bewitched) witches have god-like powers like time travel and without the need for spells or potions or anything like that. Not only is it not like that in folklore, it's really boring dramatically.”

That kinda describes the Carrie VS Chris Conflict. I mean, bullying for years, versus killing someone? But still, Chris was annoying so Carrie using her powers gets justified.

It bugged me how the main moral seemed to be “Don’t bully people, because they might go psycho on the whole school and they might hurt you,” not “Don’t bully people, because they have feelings, too.” Then again, I don’t think Stephen King writes for morals.

And Carrie reminds me of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Or the other way around, seeing as the latter was written in like 2007. Basically:

Book	Carrie	Nineteen Minutes
Setting	Maine	New Hampshire
People nice to bullied victim, who later unknowingly caused bullied victim to get revenge.	Sue/ Tommy	Josie
Things that should and probably count as sexual harassment.	The shower scene.	Peter getting pantsed at lunch.
The story telling style.	Newspaper article scrapbook with science articles on telekinesis.	Flashbacks and flashforwards with psychological assesments.
Jerk boyfriend dying.	Billy.	Matt.
Bullied Victim dying.	Carrie getting fatigue from overusing powers.	Peter suffocating himself at the prison.

 

The only different stuff were Carrie had a religious mom, while Peter didn’t.