The Tick on Amazon Prime ~ Is it any good?

I bought my first Tick comic in 1988. It was hilarious. It was irreverent. It was not for kids. I wouldn't say it was necessarily bad for kids, but it wasn't aimed at them in any way. It was for the average comic reader, which contrary to popular belief has always been predominately males between the ages of 18-35. I was with the Tick at the start and have seen him through a lot of iterations.I even ran a small Tick fan website in the 90s. When I say I am a fan of the Tick, I mean I am a fan of the Tick.

This was my first Tick ~ 1988 (I still have it)

That early Tick fought Ninja's a lot!

The theme of whether or not the Tick was truly crazy was often touched on in those early comics. While it has never been completely abandoned, it has also taken more of a back seat in the last few Tick shows.

The animated show pretty much kept the humor of the books but took the edge off of the surreal life that was the hallmark of the comics. This Tick might not be crazy. True he didn't know who he really was, true he jumped into danger without giving it a second thought, but was he crazy? This tick won the right to defend the city in a yearly contest in Reno by, "surviving the deadliest engine of destruction 1974 had to offer."

The show was hilarious, but it was very obviously changed from the dark overtones of the comic. Actually pretty much everyone was crazy in the animated show!

Fox's live-action take on the Tick was much the same. This Tick was amazingly cast with Patrick Warburton in the lead role. He was the perfect Tick. Goofy, funny and fun. Didn't know much about the world around him at all but I never found myself wondering if he was actually insane though. When I saw him attached as a producer on the new show I was very excited and hope this new show would be more of a continuation of the original live-action fun.

Patrick Warburton was the Tick

Now we have a new Tick. I'm going, to be honest, it took me several episodes to start liking this show at all (and I'm still not in love with it). This is a darker version of the Tick, with much more in common with the original. This Tick may or may not actually be crazy. This is also a smaller Tick profile than was presented by either Warburton or the animated cartoon and it is hard to get used to. I don't like the costuming much at all. Arthur especially doesn't look like any of his previous incarnations. The new costumes are just clunky.

All that being said, by the end of season one pt.1 this Tick is starting to grow on me. It was funny by episode 6 (the last one of season 1 pt.1). Peter Serafinowicz's Tick is growing on me. Griffin Newman's Arthur, not so much (but I am having real trouble getting past the costume). I also dislike that the main villain is the Terror as he was the last bad guy in both the animated series and the first live-action.

So far the supporting cast is weak. We have no Bat Manuel (or Die Fledermaus on the animated show), no Captain Liberty (or American Maid) but the one really great supporting cast member so far has been the anti-hero Punisher type vigilante called Overkill (who is definitely an updated Big Shot from the cartoon).

Anyway, in closing, I really wanted to tell you I loved it. Especially since it was the first and only subject I wrote about in this blog for over a year. But I can't. I can tell you I'm starting to like it. I'm starting to find the humor. I'm starting to get used to the underlying darkness of whether or not the hero is actually insane. I don't love it though... not yet.

Season 1 part 2 is coming ~ I'm hopeful but not ecstatic

I'll keep watching - for now!

All My Movies - by Bolide Software

I have recently come across a really cool piece of software for cataloging movie software and I want to share it with you. It's called ALL MY MOVIES. By the way, I'm not getting paid to recommend the software, this isn't one of those sponsorship things at all (and if someone does pay me I'll let you know up front). This is just a cool piece of software that I really truly like and use.

All My Movies by Bolide

I'm a big movie geek. A couple years ago I started converting all my DVDs over to digital files. It saved a lot of space. My movies took up three or four full-sized bookcases in my home, so when I say it saved space I mean it saved a lot of space. 

The problem with digital files though is I used to be able to just look at my bookcase until a movie kind of struck my fancy. Hmmm, there's Armageddon, haven't seen that in a while.  It's a lot harder to do that when you're staring at directories on a computer. This software will give you a virtual bookshelf of your movies, It uses the actual DVD art.

Not only that it links to IMDB (The Internet Movie Database). It will display all the movies information on the screen. You can find movies by actor, genre, year, title, just about any way you can imagine.

Virtual bookshelf on the left ~ Movie info from IMDB on the right

You can use it with DVDs or Blue Ray disc as a way to catalog what you have. You can even use it to track those movies if you loan them to friends. Both pretty useful features for those with hard copies of their movies.

For people like me who buy their movies in digital formats now, the database will also link directly to files on your hard drive and you can use the virtual launcher to play the movie. To me, that is the programs most awesome feature. Grab your soda and popcorn and then pick the movie you want from the virtual bookshelf and hit the play button to start the movie. 

It was exactly what I was looking for when I started looking for movie cataloging software. The only functionality I would add is the ability to export a movie or movies to a USB drive, Phone or Tablet, but that is a small complaint about such an awesome piece of software.

You can download a demo on their website here... BOLIDE SOFTWARE

Black Lightning is coming and it looks awesome (also Constantine is back ~ kind of)

It seems all I watch anymore on TV are superhero and sci-fi shows: Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Iron Fist, The Defenders, Agents of Shield, The Inhumans, The Gifted all from Marvel. Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Gotham and soon Black Lightning from DC and of course Star Trek: Discovery and The Walking Dead

And of course, The Tick which was the subject of the only other post on this blog. I was hoping I'd be blogging about all kinds of things on this blog.... maybe this one will get me started (and I'll review the Tick from Amazon Prime soon)

The new Lethal Weapon, Hells Kitchen, and Masterchef are about all I watch that doesn't feature lasers, superpowers or zombies.

ANYWAY, THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!! ~ It's my new favorite show that I haven't seen yet!

Also, if you were like me you were pretty bummed when Constantine got pulled off the air after only 13 episodes. Well, John Constantine is back. Not in a reprise of his live-action series, yet... but he will be playing a big part in this season's Legends of Tomorrow and getting his own animated cartoon on the CW Seed (Free online). 

I guess I understand. I mean if the CW is in serious danger of needing to change its initials to the DC. As long as they continue to let him guest star on the Arrowverse shows I'll be pretty happy.

Green Arrow and Constantine from the 4th season episode - Haunted