TV.com

person: Henry Rollins

The Bottom Line: "Perfect"

It's often hard to watch Henry Rollins when he is in a movie role. Whether it be the thug in <i>Heat</i>, the Doctor in <i>Johnny Mnemonic</i> or the nameless policeman in <i>Lost Highway</i>, there has always been something missing from his performace. It's the idea that he is playing someone else, and not being himself. That's why Rollins is best when he is just himself.

Rollins has made a career as a musician and an actor, but his philisophy is what makes him so unique. Not afraid to speak his mind, Rollins has his own opinions on everything and tells people. But while others simply follow the crowd, Rollins thinks about the issue before spouting out some rehashed rhetoric. He also understands what it's like to be poor and on the road as a member of the band. He remembers what it was like. But what makes Rollins a true star is even though on his show and on the musical stage he appears to be a violent angry man, when in fact he is also a kind person who actually listens to the people he interviews and thanks his fans politely after his shows. A class act, and someone who has achieved more balance in this life than any other person.

show: The Electric Playground

episode: Cocked And Loaded

The Bottom Line: "Fair"

It's these type of episodes of The Electric Playground that need a little spice added to them. Sure it was interesting to see the Bullet Witch game and the Billy West interview was cool, but the episode was lacking a real killer set of games. I guess you could say this was more of a balanced episode between kids games and those geared towards adults, but it wasn't really that great of an episode.

Again, to rate an episode of EP is difficult in that sometimes it all goes back to those type of games that you like being (or not being) shown during the episode...but even with that there is some sort of humor or wit going on during the host segments. This episode was seriously lacking. Julie scolds Vic at the beginning, and then she dons a cowboy hat at the end...no funny elements at all...well there was the "Flashback" segment, but that was in another episode entirely. Sure it wasn't the most exciting or fun episode, but you still have to give Vic and the crew credit. Maybe someone else found interest in this episode. For me, I guess I'll have to wait until next week for a better fix.

show: Icons

episode: Frank Miller

The Bottom Line: "Fair"

In 2005, G4 slowly became less of a video game related network and one devoted to attracting the young male demographic. Unfortunately, this lead to the cancellation or revamping of G4 shows. Icons was one of them, but before they changed they tinkered with Icons to see if it would work. This would be the first episode of that tinkering. Granted only one episode in Icons' past wasn't game related (Mark Cuban), Frank Miller's episode was the true start of the non-video game format change. On the heels of the publicity of his movie adaptation of the comic Sin City, Icons takes a look at the life of Frank Miller. It was interesting to see a few bits of info on to where and how his life was as a younger child, but most of the episode was devoted to his work in comics. Problem with doing this is that most comic fans know it was Miller who revitalized Daredevil, gave us (and took away Elektra, and made Batman the Dark Knight he is today. So it was a retread of all that we already knew about him. It was hard to watch all the praise he was given by the Sin City cast as well, since it was jumbled together from interviews not from the Icons crew, but from generic "someone from G4" movie press interviews. They should have gotten more episode specific interviews. So the beginning of the Icons shift could had been done better. Miller deserves more than that. It was certainly something that die-hard fans will have recorded and placed in their library, regular fans will have seen it as redundant and those who didn't know him informative...but then again, who doesn't know Frank Miller?

show: The Electric Playground

The Bottom Line: "Superb"

The Electric Playground has become one of those shows I have to watch every week there is a new episode on. Being a gamer, I love to find out the behind the scenes information on the games that I enjoy. And while The Electric Playground has given me that, it has also introduced me to some other games I might not have even noticed before.

The hosts present a semi-serious look at the people behind the games. While it's interesting to find out about these future games, it is always fun to see what kind of cheesy graphics the cast and crew will use in this episode. Just know, that if it has to do with a Star Wars game, there will be a few stormtroopers in the episode. Some of their funnier and better(and well funded) episodes center around these Star Wars games.

In all, EP is a fun look at upcomming games and the inner workings of the people making these games. Finally, those people get credit where credit is due.