1.78:1 Widescreen

USA Network has certainly found a little niche for themselves, milking their "characters wanted" run of television shows. It all started with Monk and has progressed through several successful reincarnations of the quirky character-driven shows. In some cases the quirky nature of the characters gets pretty out of control, and while I liked Monk a ton, his OCD was significantly over the top at times. This tends to draw too much attention and minimize whatever might be happening in the episode itself. That's not the case with White Collar. This series has a ton of potential to be the next big breakaway hit for the cable network.

"Would you give up 20 years to prove a stranger's innocence?"

That's the question that is asked and answered, at least for one person, in the docudrama The Wronged Man. The film is a made-for-television movie that appeared originally, and still does from time to time, on Lifetime.

Let's see if you can follow any of this. Jesse Warren is a wannabe actor/director/gofer. He's taking acting classes like a million other Hollywood hopefuls. During his classes he begins to write the "way cool" story about a character named Neil Bannen. As luck would have it, he runs into another aspiring star in Mark Gantt. Gantt appears to be exactly like the character in Warren's fledgling script. So, he approaches his classmate and both agree that the story is "way cool".

Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has been the maid for the family run by matriarch Pilar (Claudia Celedón) for 23 years. Those years have taken their toll, and Raquel looks worn far beyond her 41 years. She is clearly unable to look after the household on her own, and Pilar tries to hire another maid to help out. Raquel takes this the wrong way, imagines she's being eased out, and treats each new maid as an invader who must be repulsed.

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend. Come inside. Come inside."

The rock gods must have been smiling when Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer journeyed from their perspective corners of the music world and combined to form the band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, or merely ELP to the fans.

G.I. Joe the Movie was originally supposed to be a real box office movie. It was to be the first of three animated motion pictures put out by Hasbro Toys. The other two were based on Transformers and My Little Pony. However, production delays caused the other two to go first. When Transformers and My Little Pony did poorly (gee, never would have guessed that a talking magical pony failed to grab box office sales), it was decided that G.I. Joe would go the direct video route. Years later, it still proved to be arguably the best of the three.

Parasomnia is a broad term that covers a lot of sleep disorders. I even ran into the term in association with restless leg syndrome.  But there is a severe disorder called Kleine-Levin Syndrome, also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, where the sufferer spends a very large part of their lives asleep. In reality, it usually amounts to days at a time. In William Malone's new thriller Parasomnia, we meet Laura, who sleeps about 90% of the time, making her a true Sleeping Beauty.

I get the impression that things didn't quite work out for Joe Pesci the way he might have originally intended. There's a heart of a serious actor buried somewhere deep under the makeup of a clown.  Who can forget the dead-eyed killer Tommy from Goodfellas? Most of us have that restaurant scene engraved in our heads where Tommy asked the immortal question "Do I amuse you?" Well ... Joe, actually, you do. And putting aside his initial role of Joey in Raging Bull and the aforementioned Tommy with its carbon-copied Casino character, Pesci has made the most noise by amusing us.

"Earth: a unique planet. Restless and dynamic. Continents shift and clash. Volcanoes erupt. Glaciers grow and recede. Titanic forces that are constantly at work, leaving a trail of geological mysteries behind."

I saw a bumper sticker recently that read; "Geologists dig classic rock". I should have taken it as an omen that I would be spending some quality time with a few geologists over these last couple of weeks

Marvel Superhero cartoons come and they go. For every Spider-Man cartoon, there is an X-Men cartoon, or Wolverine or perhaps even Iron Man gets one. Some of them last more than one season but more often than not they are replaced by shows telling the same stories but in a different style. Marvel Superhero Squad show attempts to break the mold by providing fresh stories with a rather interesting and unique animation style.