My take on the new Sony PlayStation 3 console published this week in Calgary’s FFWD Weekly. Also there are reviews of Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji: Days of the Blade.

In a great twist on their own format, the writers and producers of Heroes decided with this episode to focus on only one storyline, instead of the usual crash cut between mutliple characters.

And what we viewers got was a dramatic and emotional ride that Heroes hasn’t before provided.

The episode provided some vital backstory that illuminates the history of Horned-Rimmed Glasses (HRG), Claude Rains (the invisible man), and the man known only as the Haitian.

More than that, though, as an audience we were able to emotionally connect with Clare, her mother and her father, HRG, to the extent that by the end of the episode, when HRG looks to Clare with tears in his eyes, and says, “I love you, Clare-bear,” I felt like I had just been kicked in the junk.

The best villains are those who believe they are doing the right thing, and HRG epitomizes this philosophy. Now that he’s had his memory re-set, the tension between he and the various mutants he hunts will ratchet up a notch. The fact that Clare will remember her relationship with him, while he will not, just makes the coming heartbreak more intense.

PLUS:
Clare walking out of the burning house as a damn-near skeleton, with her flesh regenerating with each step, was the best “oh, shit” moment since Nathan Petrelli shot into the air like Superman back in episode 4.

It turns out that the writer-ly theme of this year’s Academy Awards was actually intentional.

I only half-noticed that writers seemed to be getting more attention than has become normal, but the extent to which the wordsmiths were actually being recognized didn’t become clear to me until I read this article by L.A. Times columnist Jay Fernandez.

Fernandez writes a regular feature for the paper called Scriptland, about screenwriters and their craft, and he’s provided a great rundown on the ways in which writers did – and didn’t – get their due at the Oscars.

Are writers on the verge of actually getting some respect in our culture and society? Once upon a time, they did.

I’d like to see those days return.

The next batch of Academy Awards will be handed out tonight. In fact, they’re probably being handed out right now, so east coast viewers can watch the proceedings live.

Living on the west coast means everything happens three hours earlier.

It works out better for the attendees, too, because they can be finished with the official broadcast in the early evening, which allows for more partying time afterwards.

I’ve been watching much television lately, which has seriously cut into my movie viewing time, so I must confess that I’ve seen few of the nominated films. I’ve even got a copy of The Departed on my shelf that I haven’t taken time to watch, yet.

I can’t really recommend the Oscars as exciting viewing, anyway. It is overly scripted and bland, and the speeches are so monitored for time these days that rarely will any award recipient have anything truly shocking to say. And let’s be honest, isn’t that why we watch these things?

I’ll tune in this year to watch Ellen, though, the same way I tuned in last year to watch Jon Stewart.

I’ll even confess that I watch Ellen’s daytime talk show, from time to time. I think she is brilliant. Witty, down-to-earth, and with her own unique style, I like that she clearly has fun doing what she’s doing.

So I’ll watch the 2007 Oscars, out of the corner of my eye, for Ellen. Forget about the rest of the celebrities, she’s worth it.

I wasn’t exactly surprised when SciFi, the genre television broadcaster in the U.S., decided to end Stargate SG-1 after its tenth season.

As charming as Claudia Black and Ben Browder are, they weren’t enough to overcome the slumping writing that made tenth-season episodes pale comparisons to what the show had been able to present in earlier seasons.

But now word that the story of Stargate SG-1 and its members will continue, starting with two movies that will be shot back-to-back in Vancouver starting this spring.

It’s the subject of this week’s Channel Changer if you want to read more about it.