Before Wil Wheaton stepped aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D to become the iconic Wesley Crusher, he touched my life as Gordie Lachance in "Stand By Me", a film about four friends in the 1950's that go in search of a dead body. The movie, which is about friendship and coming of age still holds up today, almost thirty years later, though I have trouble watching it now without crying buckets due to the irony of the ending and the death of River Phoenix.
Over the years, I have been following Wil Wheaton's career, and have read many of his blog postings which are refreshingly honest about his life and his struggles with depression. For the past couple of years he has had a show on Felicia Day's Youtube Channel, Geek & Sundry called "Tabletop", which is about promoting people to play games together. He has also portrays a version of himself on the highly popular CBS sitcom, "The Big Bang Theory".
In 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting Wil Wheaton at Megacon in Orlando. He was very gracious as I stammered on about how much "Stand By Me" meant to me and how our family is really into the game "Dixit" because of "Tabletop", He also gave me advice about photo-ops and how the photos look better if you remove your lanyard convention badge, (he was so right about that).
Now, he has a new show on Syfy called "The Wil Wheaton Project", which is a half hour show that re-caps the week in sci-fi/fantasy entertainment. He takes a comic spin on the subject and doesn't pull punches when a joke he tells falls flat or when making jabs at the company signing his paycheck in regard to their cheesy movies or lack-luster effects for his show.
Wil is a complete joy to watch. His show has some very funny moments and his mini-game show within the show is enjoyable. I hope that it has ratings success and that Syfy will dish out some money for a better set and maybe expand the show to an hour.
If you do not get the Syfy Channel, some of the clips from "The Wil Wheaton Project" can be found on YouTube. One of the best bits so far is his take of "The Game of Thrones" theme song based on "The Brady Bunch". "The Wil Wheaton Project" - Game of Thrones Theme Song I must warn it is not for younger viewers due to the adult nature of "Game of Thrones" itself.
Have you seen "The Wil Wheaton Project"? If so, let me know what you think.
Until next time, I am,
Sci-Fi Fan FL
No comments:
Post a Comment