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Spielberg's Taken
A few people submitted asking for an open discussion for Spielberg's Taken miniseries that premiered last night on SciFi
last night. I watched it, and I gotta say I dug it, and set Tivo up to snag the rest of it. I wish that they were spacing it out a bit more (in terms of scheduling, not in terms of leaving the Earth's atmosphere ;) What do folks think?
Give him back! Now! We need more of his old movies updated to be more politically correct!!1
I want my Stargate. Will someone please take Taken to some other day of the week?
Kent
... that means it'll be cancelled soon.
I watched the first hour and gave up. It was stupid and dull.
I missed the first episode, does anyone know if they'll re-air it? I can't seem to find the info on SciFi's site.
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
I was almost bored to tears. I'll watch it again tonight, but if it isn't better, that will be the end. I thought it was slow going. But then again, I've never been much for mini series
How many episodes is this miniseries...stuff happened in the first one, but barely tuned the viewer into what was going on. At the pace they are going they are going to need like 4 more episodes i figure.
I was absolutely Taken by it.
(cymbal crash)
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
I watched it, and I gotta say I dug it, and set Tivo up to snag the rest of it.
So you'll watch it without commercials, the Sci-Fi Channel will lose money on the show, and in a few months you'll be running a story about how a group of fans are raising money to keep it on the air...incredible.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
for those of us unable to grab the premiere, but interested in possibly watching going forward. thanks
While you're at it, take that Honda sticker off your car. I'd laugh at it if you didn't seriously think you're fooling people, but instead you make me weep for the future of humanity.
No way in Hell do I have 20 hours to watch a "mini" series. Unless Sci-Fi reruns this in some all-day marathon session, while my wife and kids are out of town, this one will pass me by.
WTF were they thinking?
- Necron69
The whole series is a total of 10 - 2 hour events. Now with all respects, how much more space would someone need.
The series revolves around three families spaced out over 50 years of history. From strange lights over Nazi Germany, to modern day. As far as the first airing, it appears as though each family will receive 3 - 2 hours episodes, then a 2 hour finalie where everyone is brought together.
Myself, I was rather appauled by the use of Steven Speilberg so prominently. Each of these episodes was directed by a different director, then Speilberg looked it over and tried to alter it ever so slightly IN THE POST PRODUCTION!. By tagging on a big league name, the further drew people in. That mixed with constant TV commercial marketing.
My ignorance is a perfect shield against your logic.
this must have come from the department of redundancy department. :P
but seriously, i had never heard of this show until thanksgiving break. After that, i could not flip past scifi without catching a glimpse of an advertisement for the show, the making of the show, the behind the scenes show, etc, etc...
i mean blah..it just looked like another invasion of the body snatchers rip off. needless to say i didnt watch it.
ps- does anyone know when it premiered?
no wonder the entertainment insustry is so powerful, we're hopelessly addicted to their product.
Deny yourself the (artificial) need for constant entertainment.
I'm waiting for it to show up on the various p2p networks so I can truly enjoy it on my 14" CRT.
I'll take low-res .avi over commercialized
network broadcast any day.
I'm the the RIAA/MPAA's worst nightmare.
Why was that movie on Sci-Fi?
Anyone know how long it will be before the DVDs are available? Amazon.com has no info, other than a DVD will exist sometime.
I must be a freak since I use the internet more than I watch TV. Well, I actually don't watch TV at all. Public broadcasts are only re-runs and I don't want to pay for cable (I pay for broadband instead). So for me the only way to see a series is either if it is released in DVD format (that I can rent/buy and watch a piacere)) or, as some series in Asia, in stream format over the Internet.
:-(
It wouldn't cost them much to put the content online, at a smaller quality, and charging a minium fee (like $1 per hour) for viewing. But we can't ask these kind of things as long as they are busy putting online services that have more DRM than music variety.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
...that the character dynamics and dialogue seemed cliche. I wouldn't expect a ton of originality from Spielberg, his claim to fame is the lowest common denominator, but this was so slow and predictable, it was a feat to even pay attention.
The casting was adequate, but not spectacular. The special effects were on par with any other TV miniseries. I perhaps just expected more from Spielberg, perhaps he could have thrown some more cash into some eye candy to keep me interested.
The plot itself was reminiscent of an archetypal heaven-hell scenario. Nothing new, but a tried and true storyline if told correctly.
All in all I'd give this maybe 4 stars out of 10, but I'll reserve final judgement until after the miniseries is complete.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Lessee... they can take any shape. They can convert to energy and just vanish. They are telpathic. They can learn English really, really fast. I mean, what's next? Flying bicycles?
Sure, I guess that these things could be part of the same super technology that allows them to get here in the first place, but I'd think its a lot easier to move faster than light than to establish communications with a totally alien species, much less assume their biology and all that jazz.
Bottom line - too much fantasy is being injected into this science fiction.
Oh great, I guess that means I have to find another date to the prom.
THIS????
Yesterday's Chicago Tribune (Tempo section) had a review and the guy really railed against it.
Enough bad points that I decided to take a pass.
It's retarted to use an entertainment outlet to proclaim your distaste for entertainment.
You'll have that sometimes...
Can you suggest some alternatives?
By saying that he set up his Tivo to watch the rest of it is saying that he enjoyed the show enough to record it all, not that he was going to skip the commercials. Gawd, you sound like an AOL exec, expecting him to "steal" the programming.
By Tivo'ing the show, our dear author will be assured of not missing ANY episodes, because, like me, he probably has no time to slot for several hours worth of programming when Sci-fi chooses to air it.
And, like as not, our dear author is going to watch some of those commercials, because, since Tivo has no 30 second skip function, he will have to see some of them, even in fast forward, and will stop to watch commercials he is interested in. I do it all the time.
Now tack on the fact that the Tivo can track which commercials he is watching and narrowing down the demographic that our dear advertisers need to target, saving them money for not showing commercials to people that don't care about their products, and allowing Sci-Fi to charge more for their time because they can show exactly who is watching what. (assuming they all don't have their heads up their arses, the different companies ought to be doing this...)
So, no, Sci-Fi does not NEED to lose money on Tivo customers, and you are an unenlighted media conglomerate tool.
But... couldn't you have linked to some review of the show, a fanpage or something like that, so everyone who didn't watch it could inform him-/herself without using google?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Well, I guess it was just a pipedream.
Next on the list-George Lucas!
felt like a slow moving x-files espisode. Nothing new except extreme slowness.
Subject: Total Information Awareness Demonstration for Poindexter
See the SFWeekly Article for more information...
The SF Weekly's column by Matt Smith in the Dec 3 issue points out that there may be some information that John M. and Linda Poindexter of 10 Barrington Fare, Rockville, MD, 20850, may be missing in their pursuit of total information awareness. He suggests that people with information to offer should phone +1 301 424 6613 to speak with that corrupt official and his wife. Neighbors Thomas E. Maxwell, 67, at 8 Barringon Fare (+1 301 251 1326), James F. Galvin, 56, at 12 (+1 301 424 0089), and Sherrill V. Stant (nee Knight) at 6, may also lack some information that would be valuable to them in making decisions -- decisions that could affect the basic civil rights of every American.
And I have yet to hear a remotely reasonable explanation as to why an alien species would expend the enormous amounts of energy it would take to get to the one of the obscure spokes of the galaxy (way away from the interesting concentrated center) and spend even two seconds watching us. Denibian slime worms would more interesting.
I dug it, going to watch the 1st and 2nd episode tonight again!
I am BLaRG!
Economy sucks, projects are sparse, country's turning into Orwellian police state, and they're about to cancel Farscape and Firefly. There's nothing I'd love better than to be Taken.
So hear that, oh might travellers from the planet Calgon? Take me away! (right after I see the Two Towers on the 18th please...)
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
I'm going to take a dissenting view and say the first episode seemed like a rehash of all the done to death on the discovery channel paranormal concepts. Three hours missing time, bloody noses, car won't start up, aliens can read minds, obnoxious overwieght child actors etc. Nothing original.
I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for this...
Bored with karma, be a fan/freak
...you'd be hurting right now.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
You know, I should really go to sleep. I saw the title and thought, "Speilberg's getting married?" ...
And earlier this morning, watching the rerun of Tech TV's Screen Savers I was cought off guard by there "Bitch chat" with George Clooney.
It was moments later I realized the height difference in Bit and Chat...
Computational Madness in a round package.
our freedom!
If that isn't a sci-fi premise, I don't know what is.
Alien abduction stories are so bland that the only way that they can possibly excite me is if they actually showed an uncensored anal probing. I seriously think that alien abductions are at around the same stylistic level as any mediocre porn film and therefore they should be made into real porn so that they can actualize the full potential of these contrived mythos. It's sad how much the quality of a culture's mythology says about the culture.
Well Taco, I think you have way too much time on your hands. Tivo or not, how do you watch so much tv? And aren't you married now? Go probe your bride and turn off the tube.
The damn thing didn't start till 10!
A lot of people don't like the John Edwards show being on Sci-Fi, but I don't think they understand that it is as fictional (or more so) than many other shows on the channel.
Too many characters doing almost nothing. Notice that most characters weren't even named! They were just "that redhead" showing up and doing boring everyday stuff. No distinct characters (were there any blacks, asians, etc in the forties? - btw I am a white male), so you could barely tell people apart. Okay, so the aliens are kind of cool. They only showed about seven seconds of aliens in the first hour of boring crap, so I turned it off. I was VASTLY disappointed. So you want to make a miniseries - if you don't have DRAMA no is going to watch 20 hours!
that premiered last night on SciFi last night.
:P
:)
Thats redundant
had to point that out
10 - Commercials
9 - I'm never going to finish reading Cryptonomicon
8 - I'll miss night 9 due to being on a bus
7 - I'll miss night 10 due to being on the mountain drying out my clothes from a day of snowboarding
6 - It might be good
5 - I might like it
4 - I wouldn't be able to deal with the loss
3 - I don't own a Tivo
2 - If I buy a Tivo I won't have enough room in my entertainment center
1 - Tivo is just a slow overpriced computer.
Does this series only seem to me or is it a way of getting more geeks (people that believe in Alien stuff) to buy Tivos this Christmas?
I couldn't bring myself to watch Lexx: first the blatant "this chick will get the horny geek eyeballs" is so played out. Ok, maybe it's not, but she didn't do it for me.
But most of was that stupid robot head with the live-actor mouth!!
Hello, Lexx? Conan O'Brien called. He wants his bit back.
m00.
After seeing the commercials, I just couldn't bring myself to watch it. Is it just me, or is it true that "the little kid who knows everything" cliche is SO FREAKING OVERUSED by Spielberg (and other) films that it's almost embarrasing to watch??
Once a week, when I see a commercial for a new movie or show where "the little kid knows everything," I can't change the channel fast enough. And I don't tire of these kinds of things easily.
...just my 2 gil.
This was filmed in Vancouver BC (Along with many other of your favourite (<- see, Canadian spelling even) shows and movies! GO CANUCKS GO!
Sucky thing is that I don't think I can watch this show on TV up here as our cable package doesn't get us SciFi. Damnit... I guess I have to wait till it shows up on the p2p nets
I watched both the 9-11 and 11-1am showing and I thought it was pretty interesting. I have always been intrigued and felt a sense of strangeness while watching it. Especially scenes like the plane going down and the lights engulfing it.
One scene that stood out was when the woman was walking through the ship wreckage and discovers the alien metal. I was waiting for something to either jump out and attack her or she was going to discover a body. Instead we see her walk off and the camera zooms in on the tree revealing an alien. That was eerie.
The rest of the episode was brief flashbacks and intricate character developement. I also noticed they tried to keep with the Area 51 crash and weather balloon coverup, these were blended into the story quite well. Dont forget the bits with the alien drivebys and cars/electrical equipment shutting off.
I will be tuning in the check out more....
CmdrTaco,
I missed Taken last night which premiered last night on SciFi last night, so I have no opinion whether I liked Taken last night which premiered last night on SciFi last night. Last night I was doing something else last night. I'll try to catch it tonight.
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
when you talk to the <grin> good folks </grin> at the MPAA, make sure to point out that by accepting the lates Microsoft(r) EULA's they are granting permission to Microsoft(r) to examine the data on the MPAA's computers. That includes copyrighted movies and music.
If the MPAA is using WinXP(r), WinXP(r) Pro(r), or the latest service pack for Win2000(r) Pro(r); Microsoft(r) may already be examining upcoming blockbusters before they are released!
Please Jack Valenti, put a stop to this piracy, and sue Microsoft(r) for violations of the DMCA.
</soapbox>
I have been boycotting the Sci-Fi channel since they dumped Farscape. If Taken gets good reviews, I will just get it on DVD when it comes out.
Support bacteria! It's the only culture most people seem to get.
Missed it, maybe it's finally time for a tivo. But the last mini series rocked!
I did not see the show but why bother? TV was overflowing with alien abduction movies a few years ago. Anything that Spielberg can put together has already been done. More power to Spielberg because he is a talented guy but this idea ranks up there with Travolta's sequel to Battlefield Earth.
They didn't skulk about. They didn't dress up like swimming iguanas or giant tortises.
They explored, and observed (and for Marco and Chris, traded). None of them hid, themselves of their purposes.
wait ... taken was the name of a show ...
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Everything that has happened seems like it's just rehashing the cliche'd mythos: crash at Roswell, abductions, military cover-up, etc etc etc.
All of this stuff was really old news even back in the 60's; is the show going to dare to do anything new at all?
I doubt it, but I'll watch a bit more to give Spielberg the benefit of the doubt.
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
But will there be any anal probing? I would really like to see that.
Anal probing. 'Nuff said.
They don't show crap like this!!!!
Do you have any idea how many aliens are employed by Galactic Anal Probing Inc.? If they didn't abduct us and anal probe us their economy would colapse!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
i dont' have cable, i'm so sad...
I can't help feeling that I was watching a weird mélange of Spielberg's visual sensibilities all in one film.
I also am seeing, what appears to me, to be the beginning of the end for the Sci-Fi channel.
The first clue was canning Farscape. While it may not have been a ratings powerhouse, it was arguably one of the most creative shows on television - and elevated the SciFI genre far beyond it's peers. The show was perceived as the fledgling channel's flagship show and, when combined with it's on-air identity, really got folks pumped-up about the SCIFI brand. I wish more conglomerates understood the power of a franchise beyond it's initial ratings.
The second clue is the channels reaction to John Edwards and it's new-show-to-be "The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael". These are shows that are cheap to produce, attract a strong female audience - if not skew heavy female - and get ratings. Despite the fact that these shows are only marginally related to "science fiction/fantasy" etc. and are better suited aired on it's USA sister channel - belies the fact that they are polluting what made the Sci-Fi channel so strong to begin with and what gives these shows such strong lead-ins.
The third clue is the new on-air ID and identity spots currently running. I speak from experience here, as I am a broadcast designer who has done some high profile work as well as sit-in on the meetings where the politics of changing something as momentous as a logo are in full-play. First let me say this: The new logo is clunky and horrible and the new spots that I have seen are mostly insipid and mushy. Everyone I know in the Broadcast Design/ID business has for years been in agreement with me when I say "SciFi has the best, most innovative broadcast design on the planet. No contest". The work now looks like it was designed by a committee and not a visionary. What's particularly telling is the new logo. Why on earth change the logo? The old logo is far superior to the ham-fisted hack-job logo they now use. The only thing I can think of, and if anyone has any information on this I'd love to hear it, is that "new management" came in and wanted to put their stamp on everything. The whole "If it ain't broke - I'm gonna fix it anyway 'cause im the new person!" seems pretty strong here.
In conclusion, SCIFI is trading Farscape for John Edwards and in the process losing its soul. Instead of watching a particular show, I would watch "SCIFI" - I don't do that anymore, I pick and choose from a rapidly shrinking pool of shows I want to see. And the shows that do remain could be as easily shown on many other, less distinct, channels. I'm sure "The Dream Team" would do just as well on VH1. So sad to see you go SCIFI, it was fun while it lasted.
I mean, who can commit 2 hours every day for 10 days to watch the show (besides the slashdot crowd, I mean).
WWJD? JWRTFA!
What's the economic slant on watching versus skipping meta-commercials??
For what it's worth, I watched an unusually high percentage of them. I had fallen somewhat out of touch with the SciFi channel and I was fascinated by some of the teasers for next year.
(Although doubtless I'm a glutton for punishment...imagine me being gullible enough to actually look forward to seeing Children of Dune. They'll punish me with a poor production, of course.)
BTW you are implying that the Dot Com Bomb happened due to loss of confidence of advertising sponsors, but that's not the case.
Most of it was companies overspending without a good business model (including those who idiotically thought they could make billions from banner ads).
The exact definition of the boom and crash is multi-faceted, so it's also fair to say that another part of it was an unrealistic run-up in stock prices (by both professionals and amateurs) to unmaintainable levels measured by any means (price to book, price to conceivable future earnings, etc etc).
To imply that it was a matter of things like Replay users skipping ads, people installing ad-blockers on their browsers, Napster users sharing music, etc, is to grossly misunderstand recent history.
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
Someone had told me once that cable TV was advertisment free. That was how they were able to sell it. No adds, but you need to pay for the shows. Over time ads crept in. So, I'm told.
This was an above average show. I liked how the aliens were not sweet and good but have a dark agenda of some kind. I also like how they use their magic powers to trick girls into the hayloft and, once the girl is knocked up, disappear in flash of light. No ET here!! More like shore leave in Thailand. I was really worried it would turn into this other show that was on Fox a while back (I forget the title) where an abductee steels a flying saucer, escapes back to Earth and gets shot down by the Airforce (so far, deeply cool). Then, to my utter dismay, the abductee grows long hair and goes around healing plants. I was hoping the Airforce would debrief him, take the alien technology and then go and abduct some greys. One can only dream. "Taken", though, is pretty solid so far, not great, but definitely the reason I have a Tivo. It doesn't get too smary (other than that annoying sweet child narration [this worries me -- I hope the child turns out to really evil or something])
In the old movies about UFO, generals used to run the show. But now, a colonel? And, even a captain can get his head into this? And, how can an ET make a female human pregnant? That remind me something about the donkey+horse.
http://bash.org/?4281
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
I liked this movie better when it was called Signs
Now I have to go and buy tampons, depends, and diet Pepsi.
And damn I was bored one day and watched an infomerical. Now I've got to buy a "bowflex" too.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
International conspiracy. Alien abductions. Cover ups. Sure X-files didn't originate this stuff, but it did it the best (for about 5 seasons or so).
:)
But I haven't seen it yet, so I won't prematurely bash it for unoriginality. At the same time, I can enjoy unoriginality as long as it's good unoriginiality...if that makes sense.
Back in the 80's, the miniseries Roots and Shogun did manage to get people to ditch their lives for a little while, but they offered something new and different and informative. Taken is just a rehash of flying saucer mythos we've already heard endlessly.
I was however amused; instead of the usual (ahem) probing, judging by all the nosebleeds, they were getting nasal-probed instead. :-)
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
I was planning to skip "Taken." I'm pretty busy and don't have all that much time for TV.
Then yesterday, the Washington Post's reviewer called it "cable TV's Roots." So I programmed the VCR -- and also caught a few minutes last night. Seems good.
But why are they running this epic miniseries in December? I can understand why not in a sweeps month -- the channel isn't all that popular yet. But December? People already have lots of things to do this month. I've got three parties, a concert and an SF convention to attend in the next two weeks. As a "break out" strategy the scheduling seems plain dumb. Running "Taken" in January would seem a much better idea.
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- B. Franklin
Overdone, overplayed, commercialistic hollywoood-land predigested schmaltzy Pap for the Masses. Gad. I am so sick of Bileburg and his "Ballcap-hey-I'm-just-a-regular-Joe-with-200- million-bucks" act I could hurl, not to mention 90% of his flics.
His material is just _so accessible_ and _formula_. Add: Adorable children, well-scrubbed wholesome families, pure and noble patriarchs and matriarchs, season heavily with saccharine, and shake until queasy. You laugh, you cry.
Yawn.
And as such, it will be a Great Success, despite the fact that, according to a recent survey, the public's interest in "Aliens" is at it's lowest point ever. Why? 'Cause all you need to succeed in today's "splinter market" is 100,000 or so whackos who believe that aliens are among us and are using us as breath freshners. In today's America, it's a guaranteed find. And Sci-Fi's got 'em watching.
(Which is not to berate that channel; it's got some very good REAL Sci-Fi on it.)
Gad, when is Hollywoodland going to hire some REAL sci-fi writers, not just some super-rich schmaltz mill, to make good sci-fi flics?
Any of my fellow Canadians know if it's airing in Canada? Or do we have to wait 6 months until SPACE picks it up?
Are you coming on to him (or her ... or it)? :]
[/goodhearted humour]
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
My wife and I (both sci-fi fans as well as SF fans, for those keen enough to know the difference) tuned in to watch Taken last night, somewhat put out that it preempted our usual Monday night four-hour Stargate fix, but hopeful nonetheless.
Well, my wife was Taken by the sandman about halfway through, and I was Taken by a game of Rolling Thunder on my laptop. What a SNOOZEFEST! After about an hour, I found myself scrolling through the onscreen guide to see what I was missing.
I finished watching it out of the hope for some twist to keep me hanging on for the next episode... no luck. I think I'll pass on this series.
... the trailers I have seen were a turnoff, in that they are presented as being accounts of true events. And, quite frankly, I can't give much credit to the abduction mumbo jumbo.
Anyone else notice that in the related links: bar? advertising slowly engulfs slashdot...
Wrestling is for homosecksuals. You, res0, and sean horan forever.
well that's just too bad for you, isn't it?
shut yer hole, ya punter
crash at Roswell, abductions, military cover-up, etc etc etc.
How the hell does a military of humans cover up a race of beings who have conquered inter-galatic travel? We would be to them as ants are to us.
We'll definitely be having a LAN* party while we watch Taken at my house.
Come on over.
*LAN = Lubed Anal Nightstick
Other than the fact that this looks like another patented Spielberg *child point of view* story, the first episode seemed to be more interested in taking up 2 hours that it did trying to tell a good story. I guess that I was expecting way too much based on the promotion.
The story is predictable, the acting is o.k. at best, the special effects are uninteresting, and I kept finding myself swithching to the Monday night football game to keep from falling asleep. Maybe if they shortened it 50 percent by getting rid of all of the soap opra'ish fluff, it would be more tolerable. As it stands now, I can't wait for the next Dune installment! The 5 second teaser for that was even better than the 1st episode of this "Taken" thing.
Slashbots consider that top entertainment.
1. I hate the logo. The 'A' in taken consists of a human figure with arms and legs out ascending through the sky, illuminated by a burst of backlighting. The lighting is more prominent than the figure, so it looks like the title reads 'TOKEN'.
2. I liked this series better the first time... when it was called "Amazing Stories".
(oh yeah, and 3. ???, 4. Profit.)
I missed it, but I don't care too much. No wonder SciFi was complaining about Farscape costing too much: they spent all their dough on a "brand name." You can't tell me something with Spielberg's name tacked to it came without a nice, hefty price tag. I guess if it's good, they'll put it on DVD like their Dune series, and if it's not, they'll play it profusely back to back with Tremors 3.
... it cured my insomnia.
There was precious little on cable my wife and I wanted to watch, and Farscape was the last straw. Now a peice speaker wire brings us Buffy over some kind of invisible "airwaves."
Screw me Sci Fi? No...screw you, and the AT&T you rode in on.
Now it's $20 a month for Net Flix, and I still save $30 over the cost of cable.
What were you expecting?
How'd Greedo shoot first if he was holding a walkie-talkie?
so is mispelling the word retarded when calling someone it. LOL
I mentioned this a while ago and was subsequently mod bombed.
Taco, why do you think "folks" care about your junk culture. I mean, TV series?!
Just 'cause we're nerds and geeks don't mean we consume any sci-fi stupidity. Actually free-sofware geeks found on Slashdot have higher standards on average, are more independant-minded, self-directed. I expect them not to eat at the mass-media trough, like you seem to assume.
So please don't encourage them.
Do you sometimes see a theatre play, a jazz concert, some other independent-artist live performance? Something actually not in the realm of the MPAA?
I'd like to hear about it.
From the promo spots, this looks EXACTLY like the X-Files. Spaceships, bright lights, military activity, even a person with dark fluid in their eyes. Some of this may be due to common source material, but the visuals seemed way too similar.
As a devoted Farscape fan, I am not going to watch Sci-Fi if I can avoid it. Can anyone who saw the first episode comment on visual similarities? Maybe some episodes will be different due to the different directors. Or maybe this series will have a better ending than the X-Files did?
Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.
Well I watched it last night and I can say it lived up to it's name sake. Someone got took and it wasn't by they aliens.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
heh, sorry, couldn't resist...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
A few people submitted asking for an open discussion for Spielberg's Taken miniseries that premiered last night on SciFi last night.
Today Slashdot destroyed my ability to speak properly today.
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
A Spielberg show about "encounters" with aliens?
Or how about this new film from Wes Craven called "They"? It appears to be about "nightmares" that kill.
It's bad enough that Hollywood newbies can't come up with original story ideas but now the veterans are rehashing their own ideas!
would be better. Get it all over with quickly. Then, cancel Farscape. Then, make sure no Star Trek is ever shown again. Finally, cast Jon Katz as Stanley's gay lover on Lexx.
Is there a streaming video/video file of this show? I am curious what it looks like. I was unable to find any on Taken's Web site.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
You'd think this "elite" portion of society would have figured it out by now that television was not for their benefit, and distanced themselves from such a blatently manipulative information source rather than immerse themselves into it.
That's not smart. Quit being a bottom feeder. GIGO.
What do folks think?
I think you all are spending too much money on cable/satellite TV.
You probably have cell phones too.
Sheesh.
(Not a Luddite, just someone who doesn't see the value proposition on these items the same way that other folks apparently do)
...nothing beats glitchy mpeg2 ripped off a TIVO!
Not so in the USA. How many years has Friends been running? Has anything really happened? Not really. Most shows in the USA feel the need to conclude an episode with all issues being resolved so that nothing has changed in the world that has been created. Contrast this with 24. It has a season-long plot and watching the episodes in order is important. Hopefully the popularity of 24 will lead to more shows that are actually going somewhere plot-wise instead of running in place for the whole season, an hour at a time.
Lasers Controlled Games!
This is why Chris Carter never let Steven direct an X-Files - what Chris Carter tells in under an hour apparently is going to take Steven over 20 hours? Huh?
Frankly I don't have 2 hours every evening to devote to watching Sci-Fi.
He needs to get over these imaginary 'NAZI's! Like anyone would believe that the world would stand by and allow some power mad meglomaniac with a mustache kill off 6,000,000 people! Think about it, people! He's just ripping off Joseph Stalin! If he was any good as a writer/director/producer, he would have come up with some more believable villians, like the ones in the documentary film 'V'.
Since Sci-Fi fronted the cost for this mini-series, then they will end up profiting off of a DVD sale. So, I am not sure what you will actually gain by buying it on DVD instead of watching it on the tube.
- Rick
www.bluealien.org
Prophets of the Blue Alien
Look in the big blue room, I'm sure you'll find here there!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Stargate is returning Monday December 16th and 23rd. According to scifi.com's stargate-sg1 page, Stargate will be airing new Episodes on Friday's starting January 10th.
...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
First, there was that short scene where government scientists were abashed that they could not pinpoint WHAT the aliens were made of, because their organic tissues seemed to respond to whatever test was thrown at them, and became what the test was looking for. That scene was VERY bad, imho, as it was too short, and so completely portrayed in laymen's terms it probably went unnoticed. If these aliens could replicate human tissue, then it goes without saying that stretching the truth about their "compatibility" with us isn't reaching that far.
Second, Owen Crawford's character, as the Colonel (who is promoted to Major, btw, in the first episode), GROWS to become a key government official in charge of the Roswell case. He's supposed to be the "human" villain element, and I think he will play such a part quite well.
I've been pretty anxious for this series to start. I watched the first episode last night, and will be taping the rest and watching it when I have time. I feel that 20 episodes is extreme, but at least they will have a chance to play everything out properly. Like someone else mentioned here, I'll respond to this series if, at the very least, it's "good unoriginality".
"I have yet to hear a remotely reasonable explanation as to why an alien species would expend the enormous amounts of energy it would take to get to the one of the obscure spokes of the galaxy"
obviously, they read slashdot and want to download the latest mozilla 1.2.1 release
and how about misspelling "misspelling?"
"But the masses of impatient Americans tuned out because the first 10 minutes..."
Give the insult America crap a rest. What's your problem?
There were some ads for taken about a month ago, and she was talking about how she is 1/4 alien, because her dad was 1/2 alien.
she is the kid of the kid.
I told you it was a spoiler, and it was in the commercials, so that isn't really even a spoiler. So there.
I have a similar feeling for farscape. I just couldn't get into a space ship with muppets on it! I kept expecting to see Miss Piggy pop in looking for Kermit.
G.
I like Science Fiction, I'd like to check it out! What's the URL? How much bandwidth do you need to see it?
Sleep is for the Weak
I really like that show :)
With all the restraining orders and paid security, you would think he would have some peace. Poor chap, and now he's been TAKEN. We should take a moment to remember there's always time for Kubrication. (owiee..owiee...I won't do that again, I promise.)
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
did I say I was NOT retarded? I think not DIRK!
"Steve Beers" Taken! First reasons is, well, his name is beers! I can't drink Spielbergs. And also I have been informed by very high up sources (I haven't. I'm lying but wtf) that the only thing Spielberg did was fart in one of the editing suites to get his name on the credits. Mr Beers worked on The A-Team ffs! He deserves the credit more than The Goonies guy does.
"Never trust a computer you can't throw." -- The Mac
Nay nay! Confidence is exactly the mechanism that makes many useful systems work:
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
Well whoever the little girl is, her narrative is DAMN annoying!
.50 cal German
machine guns, don't forget) overpowered the aliens and grabbed the machine
gun, mowing the aliens down. In flashback, he couldn't remember what really
happened and thought they had been Nazis, not aliens. Unless, of course,
they were Nazi aliens.
"My work here is almost done, and I'm not going to let anything stand in my way!"
Spielberg's disdain of the military couldn't be more evident. He had to make the "ROTC fag", who was really interesting for about 70 minutes or so, just another thug in a uniform (who's willing to kill innocent yet slutty-like women in order to get his way)
The alien CGI could've been better (although the opening World War II airplane scenes were pretty cool)
She might not've been the prettiest girl, but the Colonel's daughter did have dark hair, and I'm sure glasses are only a step away! Besides, she's the evil ROTC fag's sun and the moon.
The B-17 bomber pilot, the last member of his squadron still alive, was captured with his crew by aliens who started torturing them. The aliens had left a machine gun in the operating room. Using his secret power of adrenaline, the bomber pilot (who had also been gutshot by
Having a lot of the episode in Texas follows historical fact. Carswell AFB was in Fort Worth and was closed in the early 1990s; before transferring to Air Force control, it was Fort Worth Army Airfield (Ft. Worth AAF). Fort Worth AAF was the regional headquarters for the Army Air Force at that time. Roswell Army Air Force base would have been part of the Fort Worth District. There was in reality a debriefing over the "Roswell Incident" at Fort Worth.
The same concept applies today; Fort Sam Houston is the headquarters of the Southwest Installation Management agency, of which Fort Hood is now part of. Also, Fort Hood and most of Texas and New Mexico are within the Fort Worth District of the Army Corps of Engineers (The Galveston District of the Corps makes up the Gulf Coast, Valley, and Houston).
Also, since Lubbock isn't too terribly far from Roswell (from Roswell head east on US 380 to Brownfield, TX, then head north on US 62 to Lubbock, about the same distance as from San Antonio to Corpus) it's possible that one of the aliens ended up in Lubbock.
Finally, Fort Bliss was/is a pretty big base, it straddles Texas and New Mexico (Fort Stewart also straddles Kentucky and Tennessee), it's close to Roswell, and would've had a much larger hospital than the Roswell base.
"Episode 2: Attack of the Greys" is tonight, with a repeat of last nights' debacle/episode/pilot/promising show that rapidly turned into a piece of crap before, I think at 6.
PS my last thoughts are these, besides, "I waited 12 months for this?"
1. THEY CANCELLED FARSCAPE TO FINANCE THIS debacle/episode/pilot/promising show that rapidly turned into a piece of crap?!!
2. THEY CANCELLED FARSCAPE TO MAKE WAY FOR "TREMORS: THE SERIES?!?!? AT LEAST "SHE LIKES HER SHORTS SHORT!" Gawd.
3. OH WAIT! THEY CANCELLED FARSCAPE TO MAKE WAY FOR "THE DREAM TEAM!!!!"
Notice that SciFi starts their new logo with "IF" that fades into Sci Fi? Well, WHAT "IF" THEY'D FORGOTTEN THE AFOREMENTIONED ABORTIONS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND RENEWED FARSCAPE ANOTHER TWO YEARS??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
...That would have made a better title. It's like somebody took away his special-effects dept. and so he had to make do with things like bad matte paintings and the oh-so-clichéd alien-appears-as-human device.
The coolest thing about this episode were the commercials the Sci-Fi Channel ran. That mutant kid with the wings and the suction-cup fingers almost made me spill my beer. Little fucker.
I'll tune in tonight, just to see if there are new commercials.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Yet that is inherently absurd. Movies are for audiences. Percentagewise, almost no one has made a serious movie.
I prefer the old saying that "Everyone has a right to an informed opinion. Ignorant opinions are antisocial."
(Someone will doubtless now explain that this is a form of totalitarianistic censorship and how dare I do that, etc, but at least now it's clear in advance that I think they're antisocial to say so. ;-)
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
He's married to Kate Capshaw. Duh. Don't you people watch E! except for the Anna Nicole show?
Sheesh.
Lots of petrified grits
...naw, can't do it.
It seems pretty stupid. Ive seen countless stories like it already, I don't wanna see it again just cause it has Speilberg directing or lots of special effects.
Just my 2 cents.
I mean really. "Field of dreams" is sci fi? "Cape Fear"? "The flintstones"? Give me a fucking break.
Colonels are very powerful. Management of a project like this could easily fall under a colonel while Generals did the overseeing of the project. I am not surprised by this. There have been many historical projects run by colonels that seem to scale to this one in size (though nothing would scale to it in importance).
On the point of horny aliens making lonely housewives pregnant, this too jives. The source material is American Mythology, not Science. It certainly fits in with the UFO mythology.
Further they take the story and successfully kill Roswell's part in it! It needed to be done. Mogul needed to be put in it's proper place. I give them a huge thumbs up for that. The smoking gun on Roswell has always been what was recovered. Even Dee Proctor admits it could only fill two (2) wheel barrows. That couldn't possibly be enough material for the alleged UFO. By confirming that what hit Corona (the actual site of the crash is Corona but Roswell has and AFB so it got the name recognition) the writers have breathed fresh air into a story that would otherwise have had a very tough time allowing people like me to suspend disbelief.
Spielberg had nothing to do with Taken other than letting his name be used. If it wasn't, no one would watch this stuff. It has ten (yes, as in 10) directors. The first did "Dante's Peak." The second, Breck Eisner, is famous for two things: The Budweiser power surge commercial and being the spawn of Disney's Michael Eisner. To use the term "character" or "plot" are more fairly applied to Barney than this flick. But, hey! If you like Barney and your daily soaps, you're bound to go ga ga on this trash. Rock on, dudes.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
So what happened to the 2 boy scouts and their father who found the saucers ? I bet 'cleansed' mean killed ?
Seems like most people don't like the show. I, for one, am watching because X-files never finished. I like a good epic mythology and the grey alien theme is something cultural that people should play with. It's only in the guise of kidnappers that aliens are drawn or talked about this way -- that fact alone is an interesting one from a psychological/anthropological view.
I think the writers have done an good job of tying together a lot of disparate ideas concerning aliens. There's a lot out there -- pilots taken by aliens, woman who have alien babies, the military, strange sky sightings. In fact, I thought the portrayal of the military's denial of the craft being a UFO was realisitic. There was no giant conspiracy, just some arrogant men. In fact, they were wrong in the beginning when they didn't think there was a craft. And what better way for an alien civilization to explore humanity than by becoming human? (It should be noted that this particular theme occurs frequently in ancient mythology: the Gods become like us.)
I'll grant it's Spielburg -- I rolled my eyes every time the little girl's voiceover kicked in (again and again and again) -- but Taken's introduced new elements to an old story and is taking the story further than anyone had previously. It's not literature, it's entertainment. I probably won't catch every episode, but I'll watch it to the end to see what happens.
_________________
Intricate character development? Those were some of the most cardboard cutout plain vanilla boring characters I've ever seen - and so many of them! You must think NSync is a band of musical geniuses or that Burger King is gormet cooking, too.
I've no problem, it's the truth. We Americans demand instant gratification. By and large, we just have no patience.
...a flagrant DMCA Copyright violation.
You see, watching the comercial without buying the product is a DMCA violation as the chain-of-process protecting the advertisers intellectual property starts at the invention of marketing plan and ends at the city dump.
By using your brain to abort the process of conception to advertisement to purchase to addictive use to discard-with-immediate-repurchase you are interupting the process which protects the intellectual property (e.g. the senior partner's Jaguar ownership) of the marketing firm. This is identical to interrupting the delivery-chain inside your DVD by DeCCSing the movie.
So your brain, by recognizing the worthlessness of the comercial and the product constitutes a circumvention of a technology intended to provide the marketers with access to their Jaguars.
The FBI will be by shortly to arrest you, confisiate your brain, drain your wallet into the hands of the marketing company, and repatriate you as an afgan so that you may then be held by the CIA as a forign terrorist.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I think that Mr. Spielberg is rich and for that reason he gets to have his crap reviewed on slash-dot for free.
That is not fair.
The single thing I noticed about the inset logo (annoying little thing in the lower right hand of the screen) is that the new one is *MUCH* less visually intrusive.
Yes, I noticed it, and yes, it is different.
But by slimming down the letters, and turning the "base" ringed planet into the dual-silloette (spelling?) of just the ring and the planetary arc they reduced the "this covers crap up" factor by about 50%. It is still suggestive of the ringed planet, but now it is (were you to do a 3D analysis of the image 8-) just the user in near syzygy with the star (light source) roughly behind the planet, so two swooping arcs replace the planet. This moves the bulk of the planatary body OFF MY DAMN VIEWING AREA.
Reducing the screen clutter is always better. 8-)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
The whole series is a total of 10 - 2 hour events.
Damn you and your tricky maths! The whole series is a total of 8 hour events.
As far as the first airing, it appears as though each family will receive 3 - 2 hours episodes, then a 2 hour finalie where everyone is brought together.
As far as the first airing, it appears as though each family will receive 1 hour episodes, then a 2 hour finale where everyone is brought together.
I really did not like this show at all. For all the hype it had nothing particularly interesting to offer. There was certainly nothing for hard science fiction folks. It was mainly a very human drama type flick with a few "aliens", a bit of hardware and the common assumptions and assertions thrown in. Afterwards I wished I at finished configuring the new house network instead.
Generally I am considerably underwhelmed by the so-called "SciFi" channel. They will put any piece of B (or worse) trash on, give a lot of time to "Crossing Over" and other psychic hokum and pad with way too many and too many of the same low-grade commercials (this show was an exception on the commercials). If you want to see just how braindead our culture is, watch the SciFi channel.
What about mountain gorillas? We skulk around for those and are very careful not to interfere. Well, not interfere except when we drug one and cart it back someplace to be studied. Anyone know if we reintroduce them into the population after study? If mountain gorillas could talk eh? "These tall slender beings with barely any hair at all abducted me, probed me, stuck me with needles." Yeh, no way some alien civilization would treat us like we treat mountain gorillas right?
"In conclusion, SCIFI is trading Farscape for John Edwards and in the process losing its soul. Instead of watching a particular show, I would watch "SCIFI" - I don't do that anymore, I pick and choose from a rapidly shrinking pool of shows I want to see. And the shows that do remain could be as easily shown on many other, less distinct, channels. I'm sure "The Dream Team" would do just as well on VH1. So sad to see you go SCIFI, it was fun while it lasted."
/.ers consider real Sci Fi doesn't sell to the masses unless its action-packed. Actioned-Packed Sci fi is expensive... too expensive for TV.
Of course it is, this is the nature of all cabel channels. They do really well in the beginning but then they just skew to their audience to get better ratings and settle into a funk of turning out crap.
Every year a cable channel is remaking itself into one thing, something that can make money. Several years ago it was The Learning Channel which no longer teaches anyone anything but is mostly melodrama about emergency rooms, police chases, and weird medical sob stories. Recently they got back to their roots by actually putting something on during prime time that educates about science or history, but I have the history channel now so pffffffft (God how I long for Connections:2).
Last year it was "The new TNN!" and their revamp around Star Trek:TNG, Baywatch, and Wrestling, from a country and western style station (If you weren't enough of a redneck to know before, it used to be the Nashville Network, now its The National Network).
This year its the Sci-Fi channel, and I'm surprised it didn't come before. What most
John Edwards is cheap, and he pulls in ratings.
I don't see this as a death, just the natural order of that evil thing called cable.
If I want sci-fi, I'll tape Adult swim on Saturday night on Cartoon Network (mmmmmmmmm Cowboy Bebop *incessant drooling*)
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Debian makes slime worms?!
So now they have two products, Linux and slime worms. Interesting.
It would have been MUCH better to start off each episode with "based on real testimony".
Instead, they show a Roswell craft that is 10 times the size every witnesses said it was (in fact, most said it wasn't a disc at all, but more of a wing shape), the balls of light (foo fighters) looked like kids toys, the Grays all of a sudden can climb walls like a spider, shape shifting aliens, etc...
*sigh*
All I'm saying is that this could have been a phenom if more "facts" had been used. Instead about 2% is fact and 98% is fiction. A documentary with Spielbergs storytelling behind it would have made a MUCH better series. If you have seen "Roswell", the Showtime movie, then you know what I'm talking about.
Shame I tells ya.
I watch a lot of t.v. via my replay. While I must admit that I skip some of the commercials, I don't skip about half of them. Why? Beccause frequently when I'm "watching" t.v., I am also doing other stuff; e.g. cleaning the house, paying bills, doing laundry etc.. I don't always drop what I'm doing to skip through commercials.
I wonder if the corporate pigs of the world think that not giving commercials my undivided attention while I do dishes is stealing t.v..
What do you bet the t.v. corporations force t.v. makers to build t.v.s that strap you in directly in front of the tube, pry your eyelids open, and tie your hands down so you must watch the commercials?
There are about 5000 nielsen families which determine ratings for all shows. They are considered a good sampling of all audience but unfortunatly the system is pretty inaccurate. This is why good shows can get cancled. I suggest you people read up about the rating system.
What can you say about the opening 5 minutes of taken but simply awesome. Flying through space only to be dropped into a world war II bombimg sortie with the germans all over you. That was great stuff. (sorry for the redundancy). Unfortunatly the rest was rather lame. So far we have a colonel who is trying to keep things secret. A scheming captain who will kill to get his way. One woman knocked up by an alien. Shapeshifting and/or mindbender aliens who can climb walls like an insect. All rounded off by a world war 2 vet (see the first 5 minutes again) who can't sleep and needs a tin foil hat. One thing for sure though is that it will be interesting to see how they bring all of these parallel tracks together.
Sparkeyjames
If sense were common everyone would have it!
But that SciFi channel station-identification-commerical-bookend kid with the wings and bug-eyes and suction-cup finger tips really freaked me out. The greys in Taken had little-to-no-impact, but that freakish kid in the commercial kept me up last night. Ugggh!
I would doubt that the researchers in the wild drug and drag the gorillas (it would provoke the whole troop).
Perhaps it's a sign that you're a geek when the most blatant "fantastic" event passed you by:
An alien life form comprised of totally different (duh: alien) biology managed to knock up a waitress at Denny's.
Not only are these aliens in possession of powerful magic, but they're quite potent beasties as well.
But fuck, if I were an all powerful alien like this, with the ability to assume whatever form I wanted, I'd turn into and bang a young GORGEOUS chick, not some matronly mother of 2 from the greasy spoon.
Please, stay on topic. The parent said nothing about anyone of us talking to the MPAA.
The Open Source Developer Community
Witness the original sentence, as we imagine it must have looked at the start of the event:
The whole series is a total of 10, 2-hour events.
Note that the hyphen is in its correct place. Now, the snapshot you took shows the aliens starting to pull the hyphen to the left, which manages to obscure the comma:
The whole series is a total of 10 - 2 hour events.
If you had dropped by /. just moments later, the hyphen would have undoubtedly been completely gone.
Good work! You've solved another mystery that has been baffling mankind for decades!
..wayne..
It's a complete rip off.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0115151
It took me a while to pin it down, but... BAM!
That was a pretty good indicator of how dumb the rest of the show would be.
...dangit, I wanted to marry the bastard. Oh well, a girl can dream.
myselfmusic
... did you remember to lock your toilet shut so you won't be tempted to visit it while watching television?
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Make 'em walk the plank!
when will the TV media change? So sick of it all, but I'm still watching...
children. E.T. ,gremlins. Hook.
Long list of bad movies. Why do people kiss his ass. Schindlers list is a sentimentel win for oscar, nothing great about the acting.
Did anyone else find the voiceovers done by the little girl really annoying? They seemed, oh what was that word? Oh, yes. Stupid.
'Switches channel from CNBC to SciFi'
Need an X-File substitute fix...must stop evening consultant gigs this week.....
Eric Close, from Dark Skies fame, is now an alien in Taken!!! Figures that he would have gotten *Taken* by the Grays/Hive/etc...
if (!sig) { printf("Signature Unavailable\n"); }
Has anyone noticed that almost every movie Speilberg does has Nazi's in it? hmmmmm.....
great. spielberg's talken, einstein's unveiled, ogg vorbis is unpeeled... i suppose fermat bare-assed is next.
-a.c.
Offtopic, but important nontheless.
Looks like Mr. Burns' director, Spielbergo, did this movie with an alien that happens to have human compatible sperm to impregnate a terran women.
Oh, also, if they were soooo smart why did they crash, twice?!
The parent of my comment said this:
"Only when we inform the MPAA of the contributions made by the Open Source developer community can we disbang region-encoded DVDs."
I was merely following up on something said in the parent. I apologize if this was off topic.
i agree... dont forget AI, the much overhyped debocle.
saving private ryan... lots of gore and such
[rant] I feel more taken by Sci-fi! Look at all the air dates for steven's little film! How many airdates did the new robocop series get? I'll tell you how many...once! When oh when will it ever be on again? Probably never...(insert mutting here) [/rant]
Hard work usually pays off over time, but procrastination pays off now.
seinfeld rules
Am I the only one who hass had a hard time hearing the dialogue in this series? The background music is so loud,, and the sound effects such as helicopter blades whipping and echoes in caves are so loud you can barely hear the actor's voices. I finally had to turn on the closed captions to know what was happening. This has to be the worst sound editing I have ever seen on a movie!
Each night on TAKEN, I sat on my couch...
Starting at 8pm....
The next thing I know, it's 2am
Lost track of 6 hours....
I must have been TAKEN too!
Must have been the startling special effects,
or the fantastic acting,
or the, uh, well, it was good.
if (!sig) { printf("Signature Unavailable\n"); }
What you end up with, after running an operating system concept through
these many marketing coffee filters, is something not unlike plain hot
water.
-- Matt Welsh
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