Is the Super Bowl still going on? Because I stopped watching and went straight to my computer after the commercial for “The Avengers” aired.
We’ve seen some of the footage to be found in the “Avengers” Super Bowl commercial before, and a little bit — the repartee between Tony Stark and Loki — was convention footage.
But the best part of the spot? That shot of the team assembled, back to back, facing down a threat.
How many days until May 4?
If you’ve been watching and enjoying “Justified” the past couple of years, you probably know that the FX series about the U.S. marshal dealing with hillbillies, meth dealers and killers in the hills of Kentucky is taken from the work of Elmore Leonard, one of the most beloved writers of crime drama.
The lead character in the show, Raylan Givens, has appeared in a couple of Leonard novels, “Pronto” and “Riding the Rap,” and “Justified” itself is based on a Leonard short story, “Fire in the Hole.”
Leonard has returned to Kentucky and the world of Raylan Givens in “Raylan,” a recent novel that some “Justified” fans will find familiar.
“Raylan” follows Givens as he deals with a marijuana-dealing family, a double-dealing coal company representative and a card-dealing poker player who happens to be a Butler University student from Indianapolis.
A couple of those plot points should seem especially familiar if you’ve watched the show, but Leonard — who apparently shared some storylines with the writers of the series — threw in a few twists. Marijuana-dealing brothers Dickie and Coover don’t answer to their mother, Mags Bennett, but to their father, and they’re involved in organ-snatching. And Carol, the coal company executive sent to Harlan County to persuade property owners to give up their mountain, is more dangerous here.
To be honest, the book feels a little half-baked. Is it because I knew and loved the TV versions of these stories and characters first? Maybe. But the coal company story goes nowhere and the storyline about the card-playing college student feels truly tacked on.
As much as I loved seeing Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s longtime friend and sometimes nemesis, in the book, he doesn’t have a lot to do.
And frankly I can’t imagine the Raylan Givens I’m familiar with doing some of the things Leonard has his character do in this book.
What happens when an author’s characters take on a life of their own? Well, Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes when he became something more to readers than to the author.
I’m sure Leonard — who wrote genre classics like “Get Shorty” and “Out of Sight” — can live with the TV incarnation of his Kentucky lawman. And thanks to the TV show, viewers can embrace whichever they prefer.
Trust me on this one.
“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” is a terrific book.
I know. That title. “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” might be the best-executed (no pun intended) work of fiction with the cheesiest title since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
It might be easy to confuse Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2010 novel with the author’s own “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” or other historical fiction/horror fiction mashups. It’s not that at all.
Grahame-Smith’s book is a fantastic (literally) but well-told story based on the premise that Lincoln, the Midwestern farm boy and rail-splitter who grew up to be the country’s 16th president, waged a secret battle against vampires for most of his life.
In the book, Lincoln learns that his mother’s death was at the hands of a vampire after his father failed to repay a debt. The future president discovers that areas of the still-young country are rife with vampires.
The novel’s best conceit? Vampires are a huge part of the Confederacy, which slaves traded in part so they can be used to feed vampires.
Young Lincoln learns much from Henry, a mysterious, all-knowing stranger who befriends him and then trains him in the art of vampire killing. Needless to say, Henry has a secret.
The book has been made into a movie written by the novel’s author. It comes out in June.
The novel treats Lincoln and Henry, as well as the story itself, with grace, reserve and dignity. There’s not a hint of camp. Lincoln is just as tragic a figure in the book as he was in real life.
Sure, it’s bizarre to think of our nation’s greatest president hunting and beheading vampires. There’s a shock value to the title that the story can’t match.
“Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” is as preposterous-sounding as can be. But it’s a fast-paced, witty tale told well.
Joss says no.
We’ve mentioned in this blog lately the Interwebs rumors — based on a random comment in an interview with actress Jenny Agutter — that Spider-Man would make a cameo appearance in May’s “Avengers” movie.
This got everybody who wasn’t looking at porn on the Internet very excited.
Then, on Wednesday, during a Twitter chat with a few “Avengers” cast members, director Joss Whedon said this in response to a question about Spider-Man being in the movie:
“There is no Spider-Man cameo. But the Avengers do turn off the dark.” (Ha Joss! Broadway humor!)
Okay, on the face of it, that would appear to settle the matter. Joss says no Spider-Man cameo. And that’s perfectly reasonable. After all, different movie companies, yadda yadda yadda.
And I think he’s telling the truth.
But …
This is the devious genius behind the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series, after all. The guy who devised, or at the very least approved, the addition of fan favorite Amber Benson, who played Tara, to the show’s opening credits … on the same episode in which she was killed.
Talk about bait and switch.
So Joss says no. No cameo.
He didn’t say anything about an appearance of more substance than a cameo, however, did he?
Nah. Couldn’t be.
You know what the world needs even more than a blog about pop culture, with an emphasis on the fun, geeky and goofy?
A Twitter feed about pop culture, with an emphasis on the fun, geeky and goofy.
I’ve been on Twitter for my job for a couple of years now and I love the 140-character-at-a-time, headlines-and-links nature of Twitter. It is, in many ways, the most direct way of communicating on the Interwebs.
So I’ve decided to start a pop culture Twitter account.
If you’re so inclined, check it out at @Pop_Roysdon on Twitter.
The third season of FX’s “Justified” continued tonight with “Harlan Roulette,” mixing equal parts humor and backwoods mayhem.
U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) was almost a supporting character in tonight’s episode, and that’s okay when you consider the strength of the Kentucky lowlifes who routinely pass through this great series.
And the emphasis on bad guys is perfectly in keeping with the work of Elmore Leonard, the crime fiction author upon whose work “Justified” is based.
Tonight’s episode featured Pruitt Taylor Vince as a cold-blooded pawn shop owner who is cornering the market on painkiller Oxycontin in Harlan County, Kentucky. He’s working for Quarles (Neil McDonough), the unflappable Detroit mobster who’s come to Kentucky to set up shop.
Besides Vince, who is funny and vicious, and McDonough, who is cool enough to smile when Raylan is taking his picture, the episode features not only Walton Goggins as everybody’s favorite, Boyd Crowder, Raylan’s longtime friend and frenemy, but Mykelti Williamson as Limehouse, a cold-blooded homegrown crime boss.
“Justified” continues to have a strong, strong season. The show is sharp and funny and appallingly violent at times. Raylan and Boyd are great antagonists and protagonists and the show’s bad guys — from meth heads and Oxy addicts to guys like Quarles, who alternates between talking on the phone with his kid and showing off the gun literally up his sleeve — are the best on TV.
keithroysdon 