Photo courtesy of Phillies.com.

The Philadelphia Phillies begin their final home stand of the season this afternoon with a double-header against the Florida Marlins. Today’s games come after the Phillies clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight year last night in Houston. Today’s twin billing will be followed by two four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals to wrap up the year at home. These will be the ninth and tenth four-game series of the season (eight were originally scheduled and two are the result of rescheduled games) for the Phillies and they have the distinction of having won all of the four-gamers they’ve played to date including three sweeps (Padres, Marlins, Reds). It’s one of many remarkable statistics for the team in 2011.

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So the second week of the “New 52” DC Universe feels far more difficult to predict what will be good than the first. DC is releasing another 13 new number ones this week, but absent are titles that I have real confidence in like I had with Swamp Thing and Action Comics. How can anyone possibly be expected to determine which of these new books they should really buy? There’s just so many of them! To make your life easier, I’ll offer my ill-informed, not-quite-expert opinion on what titles are worth picking up tomorrow and each week during this first month of the New 52.

As far as this week goes, in my opinion there are three new DCU books that are probably going to be worth checking out and a few others I’m at least curious about. Read more of this article »

Summer is over and the kiddies are back in school, which means the Fall television season is finally upon us. This year there are over 20 new shows debuting. That’s a lot to wade through, but don’t worry I have watched the previews for all of these new shows and can offer my expert couch potato opinion. Additionally, I have created charts to go along with my thoughts on this season’s new offerings so you’ll know exactly when and where your show airs!

The 2011 Fall TV preview continues below.

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Last Wednesday, in recognition of the first full week of DC Comics’ New 52 promotion, I recommended the six five new DC titles that I thought were most likely to be worthy of your attention and your money sight unseen. Now that we’ve had a week to digest them, the question is how did I do? Undoubtably I think it’s safe to characterize the week as a monster success for DC at least in terms of PR: tons of sellouts, reprints and series being ordered in the six figures.  Overall, I can honestly say the quality of the actual product was stronger than I was expecting. I personally recommended the following series in order of expected quality: Swamp Thing, Action Comics, Animal Man, Batgirl and Stormwatch (and Hawk and Dove). So how were they in reality? Read more of this article »

The Girl Who Waited is not only one of the strongest episodes of this season of Doctor Who, but one of the most enjoyable of the series history. I enjoyed it so much, I’m having trouble articulating all my thoughts on it. It strips away the epic storyline we’ve been following this year and gives a powerful story about the characters. From a production standpoint, the episode hits all the notes I love. The Two Streams Facility combines visually striking images or stark white walls that give way to dank boiler rooms, and lush Tim Burton-esque gardens. The music was haunting and the sound effects are perfect for the episode. I don’t normally discuss these elements of the show, but they really did appeal to me on every level and I can see myself watching this one many times.

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