Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Oh, another comic-book movie

I see even TCM is getting involved with the latest Superhero A vs. Superhero B craze. The latest installment apparently had its premiere in London last night, as Batman is fighing Superman for... why, really? What is the point? Did Batman try to sleep with Lois Lane or something? Anyhow, the London premiere was toned down because of the bombings earlier in the day in Belgium. Apparently Warner Bros. (ah, that would explain why TCM can get in on the action) decided to do away with the red carpet interviews in front of a screaming crowd. Darn; we don't get to see Ben Affleck have his Vickie Lester moment.

Anyhow, TCM's way to cash in, or more accurate cross-promote the latest release from its corporate overlord, is to show snippets of the old time comic-book serials. It looks as though we're getting two parts from each of ten different serials. Roughly one an hour, although not quite, as the night is going to end with the first of the Dick Tracy feature movies at 5:00 AM.

I'm not certain what to make of the programming. It seems like an interesting idea to look at the old serials, and TCM has aired some of them on Saturday mornings at roughly 10:00 AM, or just before the movie series spot currently being occupied by the Bowery Boys. With each chapter in a serial running about 20 minutes, that's time to get one episode a week, and come back to this theater at the same time next week for the next exciting chapter. But two chapters and then we don't get to see the rest? I'm not certain.

No comments: