POD, Stargate: Ark of Truth, and Heroes: Season 2

Amazon bullies Print On Demand publishers. There’s also a Wall Street Journal and a Publishers Weekly article on the subject.

Grand River Coffee, which was previously a Cornerstone Coffee, feels like a hotel lobby. They even have a waterfall running down a pane of glass.

Stargate: Ark of Truth is the perfect wrap-up for season 10. If it had been cut in half, at a cliffhanger, it would have served as the season 10 finale and the season 11 starter. It has replicators, a banished Morgan LaFey, the ascended Orusai, and plot tie-ups. It has everything that was missing in Season 10.

While playing like a double-length episode, it still takes advantage of feaure-film special effects, soundtrack, and camera work. Unlike 99% of the movies that the SciFi channel puts out (craaaaaap), this straight-to-DVD release was quality.

Also, Teal’c is a badass. Five stars.

Heroes: Season 2 was not as cohesive or a-to-b as Season 1 was, but I didn’t see that as much of a drawback. We learn a lot more about the previous generation, and that this super power thing has likely been going on for a very long time. Nearly every character gains depth, save Syler. That jerk. There is definitely an end-of-the world plot going on, like in the first season, but it’s implied that this is the normal course of events for people with these powers, and always has been. Very MiB in that regard.

On a technical note, I streamed this from Netflix’s servers. While the quality was good, the wait time was high (direct correlation, methinks). I’m still miffed that I’m forced to use IE to view streamed content, and that it uses Windows Media Player for its “viewing rights verification process” or whatever. But overall, it was a pleasant experience.

Five stars.