Author Archives: Liz Shannon Miller
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” Season 1: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
Hey, want to check out on the complete series? A guide to all seven seasons of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” can be found in “Liz Tells Frank: The Skip It/Watch It Guides,” now available on Amazon!
Friends, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is now streaming live on Netflix and that is a BIG DEAL. For if you never watched the show, then you’ve missed out on television that was subversive and revolutionary for its time, eschewing previous Star Trek formula to instead push the limits of multi-arc storytelling in the sci-fi genre. Oh, and it essentially served as a training ground for Ronald D. Moore prior to his equally groundbreaking work on Battlestar Galactica. That’s right — no DS9, no Battlestar.
However, the problem with DS9 is that it WAS subversive and revolutionary for its era, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of dead weight along the way. It takes at least two seasons for the show to really kick into gear, and in the meantime Lwaxana Troi shows up TWICE. In TWO DIFFERENT EPISODES. Letting someone watch the show as is could be considered an act of cruelty. Thus, the discerning television fan who wants to check it out should please consider the below recommendations. With the writer’s compliments.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1: The Skip It/Watch It Guide Read the rest of this entry
It’s the Liz Tells Frank Very Special Guest Star Anniversary Contest Spectacular!
Dear Frank,
It was upon this day, one year ago, that I first told you about a movie, TV show or book you didn’t want to watch. (It was Tron! Aw, Tron. Good times.)
To commemorate this auspicious anniversary, I reached out to some friends of LTF to help me out with the first ever Liz Tells Frank Contest/Giveaway/Whatever Language Keeps Me From Running Afoul of California Lottery Laws! These fine folk volunteered to tell me about a movie or video game I myself haven’t seen or played: Here’s the twist — our readers don’t get to know what I’m being told about. They instead have to deduce it themselves using only the provided summaries! And the first reader to successfully guess all three will win $20 in Amazon money!
UPDATE: The winner of the contest is none other than Jill Weinberger! Congrats Jill! This post has been updated to include the names of the things being discussed.
So, Frank, please enjoy the efforts of our friends — and here’s to at least one more year of this ridiculous, ridiculous blog.
Love,
Liz
Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In the “Sarah Silverman Program” Episode Christopher Eccleston Is In
Dear Frank,
Netflix has been in the news a bit this week, which always leaves me a little nervous because many times (as you might have observed), what we discuss here is directly affected by what’s available on Netflix Instant.
For example, this weekend I saw that almost the entire run of The Sarah Silverman Program was now available, which made me happy because there is this one incredible episode of that show that I’d been wanting to watch again. But weirdly, Frank, when I put out the question on Twitter and Facebook of whether or not I should tell you about this one episode of The Sarah Silverman Program that happens to guest star Christopher Eccleston, there was not even the slightest amount of interest!
Now, if someone else were to ask me if I wanted to hear about this episode, I would say FUCK YES, because it’s incredible — so I can only assume that this is a sign that THE PEOPLE MUST BE TOLD. I cannot let them live in ignorance much longer. Read the rest of this entry
Very Exciting “America’s Next Top Model”-Related News!
Dear everyone,
If you know me at all, you know that I’ve never looked down my nose at (most) reality television. But one of those shows I’ve never had much time to watch is America’s Next Top Model — which I hear is a shame, because each episode is full of drama, squealing, makeovers and LOLs.
So beginning this week with the premiere of ANTM: All Stars, Liz Tells Frank welcomes special correspondent Jeff Stone, who will be telling me (and all the rest of us) what happens in each new episode. Say hi to Jeff, everyone!
Jeff says hi back!
Jeff is an extremely funny writer and cartoonist who is also a huge fan of Top Model going back… Oh, man, I think he’s seen all the seasons. Not to hype it up too much, but I think this’ll be pretty good. So please check in later this week (maybe even tomorrow!) for the first installment, and in the meantime practice smiling with your eyes! (Like Tyra would want.)
Love,
Liz
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In “The Expendables”
Dear Frank,
Today, as I sit down to watch Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, I am at a crossroads. See, as you know, I consider myself to be a feminist (in terms of the definition: “I don’t think women are inferior to men and I don’t think they should be treated that way”). But I also have a deep, deep affection for stupid action movies and their heroes. I admire the films of Jet Li. I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Rambo. If I weren’t a delicate, chaste lady who’s never even heard of a “touch hutch,” Jason Statham would be in my touch hutch. My point is, I am about to watch a movie that features nearly every major action hero of the last twenty to thirty years, a movie that has no chance whatsoever of passing the Bechdel Test, and I am probably going to enjoy it quite a bit.
The movie starts pretty fast — there are some dudes being held captive by some other dudes on a boat, and then another group of dudes — our HERO DUDES, let’s be clear, appear to try and save the hostages. Dolph Lungren (this movie’s cast really is unbelievable) ignores Sly’s “don’t shoot people to death” warning and basically machine-guns off the main hostage-taker’s torso; more shooting ensues! Oh boy do duders die, Frank. In heat vision and everything!
But then the hostage scenario comes to a stand-off that includes Stallone and Statham (guys I really do love Statham please don’t judge me harshly) negotiating over which guys they each get to kill. Don’t worry — all the bad guys get killed. Except one, who Dolph wants to hang as a warning to “pirates,” but Jet Li says “nope” with his feet and fists! Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” Novel “Imzadi”
Dear Frank,
There are no shortage of embarrassing books on my bookshelves (as well as the auxiliary book piles) — books I brought from home because they were important to me at some time or another. And while we could argue about how embarrassing some of these books might be, I think there’s no denying that Star Trek: The Next Generation tie-in novels belong near the top of the list. On a junior high school level, after all, a Star Trek tie-in novel combines both Star Trek and, god forbid, READING. There are probably even some Star Trek fans rolling their eyes at me right now.
Here’s the thing, though — when I sat down to reread Peter David’s Imzadi last night, the first words I read, in big bold-face type, were “THE END.” And I finally remembered why I’d gone to the trouble, all those years ago, to cart a Counselor Deanna Troi/Commander William Riker romance novel hundreds of miles to my current home. Short version: TIME TRAVEL. Which makes Imzadi, actually, kind of awesome.
Imzadi is pitched as the story of how Riker and Troi, established as old lovers in the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, first met and fell in love. But before we get anywhere near the sweaty jungles of Betazed (this book is pretty enjoyable, Frank, but there are certainly elements that will not escape mockery), we first go to see our old friend, The Guardian of Forever! Original series Star Trek fans don’t need me to explain what the Guardian of Forever is; for the people in the cheap seats, though, just know that it’s a big donut-shaped rock that shows all points in time, and if you jump through it at the right point, you can travel INTO THE PAST. Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In... 