Ok this is really cool. There’s a new website/service in closed (see private) beta that claims to be to movies what Pandora is to music. For those completely unaware, Pandora is the awesome music service that creates personalized internet radio stations based on a particular song or artiest. It uses the “music genome project” to analyze similarities and then provide content the listener would like. Enter Jinni. It’s the same idea except for movies.
Jinni uses the “movie genome” to categorize movies based on plots, moods, styles, genres… pretty much everything you can think off. You can take a few tests to determine what your movie watching preferences are — I scored high on Hero, Individualist and Alternate Realist. You can also rate movies, much in the way that Netflix rates movies, to better help recommendations. But the real magic is in the search engine.
Jinni in action.
If you’re looking for an indie postapocalyptic, enter that into the search field. If you’re more into a female super hero flick, try that. Or maybe a contemporary foreign thriller with subtitles is up your alley? The point is, if you can dream it up you can search it and find something to suit your taste.
Since Jinni is still in beta, it’s not a perfect system. There are still a number of movies missing, or missing classifications and tags. It’s an ambitious task, to categorize all the movies and TV shows out there, but if it gets pulled off this system will be awesome. Easily finding movies based on taste or mood is a lot better then asking the guy at Blockbuster what he recommends. Even better, each movie page provides links to Amazon, Blockbuster, Netflix and Movielink so you can get the movie. The only thing missing would be an iTunes buy now link.
Jinni is a pretty cool concept that will hopefully turn into a pretty cool service. If you want to get in on the beta, I’ve got 10 invites available. First come, first served. Just leave a comment and it’ll be sent to the email address you use.
Here’s to sweet recommendations!
Dear Blockbuster Total Access:
We’ve been together since 2005. Our relationship started out so well. You were sending me great movies and coupons which let me rent more movies and video games in store! Then you went and did something even better. You told me I could exchange the movies you sent me in store for even more free movies. It was great. We really had a good thing going.
Then things started to change. I guess you realized your stores were no longer making any money. So before I could exchange a movie for a free rental, you made me weave through a maze of cheep candy and over-priced movie posters. Then, at the counter, you asked if I wanted to take advantage of the great deal on popcorn. Frankly, you were being too pushy and I felt a bit smothered.
Then you changed the rules. You told me I was no longer getting any coupons. In fact, I could now only exchange movies in store twice a month. You became too overbearing. I couldn’t take it any longer.
I hate to tell you this, but last Saturday I cheated on you. Netflix told me to give it a try, so I did. I didn’t want to at first, but their site was so much easier to use and recommended better movies. Sure, I can’t take stuff into a store with Netflix, but honestly Blockbuster, you’re stores are pretty old and disgusting. You really should clean every now and then. Besides, Netflix told me that by the middle of next month I’ll be able to download and watch movies on my XBox instantly and sometime soon I’ll be able to do that on my Mac too.
What I’m trying to say, Blockbuster, is that it’s over between you and me. We had some good times, but it’s time to go our separate ways. I’d like to say it’s not you, it’s me, but this time it really is you. I wish you the best in the future.
Signed,
Justin Cox
Being the huge TV junkie that I am, I am looking forward to yet another season of quality TV programing. A new season means old favorites brought back for another round of entertainment as well as new shows to try out that hopefully become weekly favorites. Thanks to TV.com’s 2006 Schedule, I will now bore you to tears with what I will be watching this fall and why. Here we go.
Monday’s
9:00 pm
Starting on September 25th I’ll be tuning into NBC’s new Heroes. This show seems to be about ordinary people who somehow obtain super natural powers. In the preview there is a guy who can stop and turn back time and a man who can fly. It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes but one storyline that I have always loved is ordinary people in extraordinary situations — and super heroes. Hopefully this show will deliver the goods.
10:00 pm
After Heroes I’ll be sticking with NBC to try out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which starts September 18th. This new show features Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, as well as some of the production team, and looks to be witty and fun. Early hype on this one is good so again, hopefully NBC’s West Wing replacement will be a hit.
Tuesday’s
8:00 pm
Although the network is new, CW brings Gilmore Girls back in its usual time slot on September 26th. I’ve mentioned before that yes, I do enjoy the Gilmore Girls. It’s witty and quick and, although it often features women yelling at each other, is very humorous. I’ll be tuning in. After all, I have to find out who Lorili is going to do next…
9:00 pm
This time slot will be my first use of the DVR during the week. Over on FOX, the new show Standoff will be debuting on September 5th. This show pairs Office Space’s Ron Livingston with Anna Espinosa herself, Gina Torres as FBI hostage negotiators. Interesting casting yes, but the show looks like it could be edgy enough to maintain interest while supplementing layered characters to carry over story lines from week to week. While Standoff is running on FOX, CW will bring Veronica Mars back for it’s third season on October 3rd. When I first discovered Kristen Bell Veronica and her friends I was instantly hooked. The second season was recently released on DVD and should start arriving through Blockbuster Online tomorrow. An interview with the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, reveled that VM has only been brought back for an initial 13 episodes this season and that if viewership doesn’t increase, the show might be doomed. Hopefully airing directly after Gilmore Girls will help and Kristen Bell Veronica Mars will get to stick around for a full year.
Wednesday’s
8:00 pm
With last season’s cancellation of Arrested Development, television was left with a serious gap in the comedy genre. NBC looks to try and bring a bit of that back on October 4th with the new 20 Good Years. This new show stars AD’s Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow. The premise is simple but looks like it could be highly entertaining. We shall see.
8:30 pm
Looks like I’ll again be sticking with the Peacock to check out the new 30 Rock starting October 11. 30 Rock is the new Tina Fey concoction that brings former SNL cast members together again and looks to be funny. I’m not holding my breath however as such pairings have often crashed and burned in the past.
9:00 pm
One word, LOST. It returns on October 4th for a “mini-season” and then will return again in January for an uninterrupted run ala 24. I can’t wait to find out what The Others wanted with Jack and co. Can’t wait. Period.
10:00 pm
The ten o’clock hour will again put the DVR in use. There are two brand new shows that have caught my interest in preseason commercials. NBC’s Kidnapped, which debuts September 20th, has peeked my attention since I participated in a feasibility test for the show. The show has serious potential, but very well could wind up being another dud much as NBC’s mid season replacement, Heist. The other show premiering in this time slot is ABC’s The Nine. This show focuses on nine people who are all caught up in a bank robbery that turns into a multi-day standoff. The show, utilizing it’s post-LOST time slot, seems to edge toward how the nine people’s lives are all intertwined and connected. This show looks very interesting. My only qualm is that ABC not try too hard to push the LOST crowd into The Nine by making the show too “supernatural” — as was the case with Invasion, which bombed. We’ll see on October 4th when the show debuts.
Thursday’s
8:00 pm
My Name is Earl returns to NBC on September 21st to try and recapture the brilliant idea of the first season. Hopefully it does.
8:30 pm
NBC’s critical and viewer loved The Office also returns on September 21st. This is pretty much the funniest show on television right now. Need an Office fix? Check out the special webisodes on their website.
10:00 pm
ABC is paring some of the creative team that formed LOST and Alias (interested yet?) to bring Six Degrees to life on September 21st. This show follows the six degrees of separation idea and shows how six people in New York City are connected. This could be interesting, but it also could be a little too much like The Nine. Hopefully there will be a significant distinction between the two.
Friday’s
This is a crappy night for TV. Shows airing here are usually doomed to an eminent cancellation. That said, if I’m home and bored — or if I feel like using DVR space, I might tune into Las Vegas during the 9:00 pm slot beginning October 20th — even though the latest seasons were never able to live up to the brilliance that was the first.
Well, there you have it, my list of must-watch-TV (notice I didn’t infringe on NBC’s trademarks). There will be other shows added in as the season progresses as notably Scrubs has yet to have a start date announced. Also, come January, 24 will return to the picture. While there will be some noted additions, there will also be some removals as some of these new shows will no-doubt be cut from the list because they fail to preform. Here’s to hoping it’s none of the ones I get attached to.
I might be addicted to television…
After throughly enjoying the first season of 24 I became hooked, commissioning Blockbuster Online to send me Season Two as well. While I didn’t go on a frantic search of the local Blockbuster’s to find the next disc this time around, I did manage to view all 24 episodes in about a week and a half. Here now are my impressions of the second day in the life of Jack Bauer.
The second season of 24 starts over a year since the end of first season. Jack Bauer has left CTU, blaming them for the death of his wife. His life is in shambles and he entertains the notion of killing himself. Jack’s relationship with his daughter, Kim, is less then stellar as she can’t seem to look at Jack without remembering her mother. Senator Palmer is now President Palmer and has divorced the she-devil that was his wife. Like in season one, a threat comes in that draws the attention of CTU. This time around a nuke is set to be detonated in the terrorist capital of America, Los Angeles. Of course, the only person capable of stopping this bomb from going off is Jack Bauer. President Palmer calls Jack into CTU and right away Jack’s “the rules be damned” attitude takes over and the second longest day of his life gets underway.
Jack follows up some leads, kills a few people, and discovers that a known Middle Eastern terrorist is responsible for bringing the nuke into America. While Jack goes off looking for that guy, President Palmer discovers that people in his administration are working against him; conveniently Palmer’s evil ex-wife shows up just in time to help him figure out who. When Jack finds the terrorist hiding under a mosque, the most intense moment of 24 (that I’ve seen at least) takes place. Jack captures the man, beats the hell out of him, and then convinces the man that security forces killed the man’s son — all in an effort to find the bomb. When Jack was beating the man I had to remind myself that this was television — it was rather hardcore.
After his talk, Jack finds the bomb but of course, it can’t be disarmed. Jack decides to fly the bomb into the Mojave Dessert to reduce the harm to civilization. While he’s in the air, Jack phones his daughter to say goodbye. That five minute conversation is one of the most emotionally charged segments in television — I almost teared up, almost. Meanwhile, President Palmer discovers that the director of the NSA knew about the bomb for weeks and therefore was working against him. But he also learns that his former wife was also in on the conspiracy — yes, the she-devil returns!
After about 16 or so hours into the day the bomb goes off in the dessert and the whole focus of the season changes from finding the bomb to adverting a war with the Middle East. In the process Palmer is removed from office, Jack is killed and then brought back to life during a torture session, and Sherri Palmer gets stabbed (unfortunately she lives). At the very last minute Jack finds all those responsible, the bombers are recalled, and Palmer regains the Presidency. The day ends with President Palmer giving a speech and shaking hands with the crowd. One member of the crowd evidently had some sort of poison on her hand and Palmer goes down. There, my friends, is your cliff hanger.
The first 12 hours of 24’s season two are extremely exciting and intense television. The second half of the season slows down a bit as the there is no real terrorist plot to thwart, though it remains suspenseful to the bitter end.
Before my addiction to 24 I had never yelled at the television screen, willing a character to do one thing or not do another. 24 commands that kind of attention and is by far one of the best shows I have ever seen. Needless to say, the first disc of season three is on it’s way to my house.
Bottom line: Season two of 24 deserves to bee seen, especially the 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm episode.
Since the show first aired, I have never been able to get into 24. Not because I didn’t think it looked interesting but because I was never able to get in at the beginning of the season. I could never remember when the season would start and by the time I realized it was on, I would be a few episodes behind. Well, now that the fifth season is nearing it’s completion, I decided to check the show out. So yes, via the wonderful Blockbuster Online, I picked up the first season of 24.
24 is unlike any show I’ve ever seen. It takes place in “real time” meaning that the season is 24 hour long episodes that make up an entire day — and this is no ordinary day. Season one takes place on “the day of the California primary.” Senator Palmer is on his way to sweep Super Tuesday and gain the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House. At midnight the CIA receives a credible threat on Palmer’s life that will take place by the end of the day. Since Palmer is in Los Angeles for the Primary, the threat is passed on to local CIA affiliate CTU — Counter Terrorist Agency — which is lead by Jack Bauer. As the day progresses the threat on Palmer extends to Bauer’s family as well. As Jack says, it is the longest day of his life. Not only does he have to figure out who is behind the assassination attempts and who has targeted his family, Jack also has to escape federal custody and figure out who the dirty agents are that are helping the other side. Like I said, it’s a long day.
If you haven’t seen this show and might like to, I wouldn’t read the next few paragraphs.
The show is extremely captivating and I found myself addicted to it. I watched the whole first season — Day One — over the weekend.
The character development is great. Jack comes off as a cowboy who is a little less than stable but will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Senator Palmer is shown as the extremely powerful yet oddly moral and honest politician who is willing to sacrifice his candidacy for what is “right.” Other characters include Jack’s hot daughter Kim who seems to be just as stubborn and unwilling to lay down and die as her father, his annoying wife Terrie who gets shot in the final hour (I’m pretty sure she died and that really doesn’t bother me at all) and Palmer’s power hungry wife who is almost a polar opposite to Palmer. This mirror is played off well and helps to elevate Palmer when, at the end of the day, he cuts his ties to his wife and has Secret Service escort her back to Washington.
At the end of the day we find out that CTU had a dirty agent at the highest level of the organization who wanted Jack dead. This is pretty much the only cliff hanger that the season provides (unless some how Jack’s wife isn’t dead) seeing as how everything got wrapped up in the 24 hour period — Jack killed all the terrorists who wanted him and Palmer dead.
Needless to say I give this show my full recommendation. It’s captivating, well written, addicting and one of the better shows on television. Season two, or Day Two, has been ordered and that review will come soon.
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