Nov 22 2005
Medium’s mediocre special effects
Last night NBC’s show Medium tried to do something cool by broadcasting their show in 3-D. How very 80’s of you, NBC! But it was intriguing enough that my wife bought two copies of TV guide so we could watch the show with the flimsy 3-D glasses provided in the mag.
When the time came to watch the show, we furiously tried to punch our cardstock eye wear out while a Rod Sterling type character explained the “magic” of 3-D. Once our glasses were ready we put them on and . . . well. . . I started getting dizzy. I took the glasses off to make sure it was a “Medium 3-D moment” indicated by a little marker in the top corner. Yep, it was there so I put the glasses back on and tried adjusting my place on the couch. It didn’t work and the first 3-D moment was over.
The next moment came and I put the glasses on, once again I started to get dizzy. I tried sitting closer to the TV, then further back, tilting my head, etc. nothing worked. In fact it looked worse with the glasses than without them.
We tried it one more time, but neither me nor my wife saw a meat clever flying at us, or blood coming through the TV. At one point I look at my wife and realized not only are the glasses not working, we look stupid sitting on the couch with them on. Luckily the only witnesses to ours 3-D glass wearing fiasco were our dogs.
So my wife and watched the rest of the episode without them. I think it was a good episode, but I can’t say for sure; I was too busy trying to get the right angle to see the 3-D effects and not paying enough attention to the plot. Nice try NBC, but next time just give us a good story with a special guest star for sweeps months and drop all needless special effects.
Oh, that’s terribly funny! I actually had a hard time with the 3-D glasses the last time I was at the I-Max theater in Sacramento. Luckily it was just a short, and the actual film wasn’t in 3-D. I’m not sure I could have sat through the whole thing. The best I could figure was that either the glasses or my eyes were spaced funny!
I, too, feel your pain. I could explain my early dissatisfaction with 3-D in detail, but I’ll sum it up in two words: Rad Racer.