Book Four: Balance Archives

by Gene Turnbow, station manager In a world where movie ideas are derived from computer games that have no plot whatsoever, such as Tetris and the recently announced movie about Microsoft's new acquisition Minecraft, it's refreshing when something actually worth watching happens. Tonight we get a double feature! First, it's The Legend of Korra, the animated series follow-on to the wildly popular Nickolodeon series The Last Airbender. Unfortunately the series has been cancelled, meaning it's lost its air time schedule position on Nickolodeon. However, in a strange twist of fate, unlike what Cartoon Network did with Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, by the time Nickolodeon Animation Studios got the word that their show had been cancelled they were already most of the way through production on Book 4: Balance. Instead of just flushing all that work, they decided to put it all online instead, one episode per week. Perhaps online viewing really is replacing cable television - this is newsworthy in and of itself. The first new episode appears today, and it looks very intriguing. Three years have passed since the last season. The kids have grown up a lot, and Korra has cut her hair. There are winged suits that make airbenders resemble flying squirrels. But that's all superficial, and you'll just have to watch it to see what happens. The other show that it seems like half the geek world is buzzing about is the new animated series Star Wars: Rebels which debuts at 9 p.m. on the Disney Channel this evening. The Star Wars universe is broadly expanded in these new tales of what happened after the Clone Wars, but before the Rebellion. Gone is the grand sweeping story arc of the old Republic versus the Jedi, to be replaced with very personal stories about a band of misfits who have their own battles to fight. It's well written, blends well with the rest of the Star Wars universe, and it is probably the single most squee-worthy thing to happen on television this year other than the new CW series The Flash series that premieres this coming Tuesday. And now if you don't mind, there's a pile of Fig Newtons, a couple of tall glasses of milk and a couple of brand new shows waiting for us in the living room. This is gonna be good. - 30 -

Tonight: Premieres of ‘Star Wars:Rebels’, ‘Legend of Korra’

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