Wil Wheaton – The Boy Wonder?

Image by Heather F via Flickr

I just discovered that Richard William Wheaton III, or as he is more commonly known as, Wil Wheaton, has a voice appearance in the soon to be released game DC Universe Online, and for those keeping track the release date for the game has been moved up, and is now due out january 11th.

Wil Wheaton, who is better known for his role as Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, is not unfamiliar with voice acting in games. He has lent his voice to many of the grand theft auto games, Fallout: New Vegas and has even voiced characters in EverQuest II. So, it’s not hugely surprising to see him voicing a character in yet another SOE MMORPG.

What I do find amusing is the character that he is voicing. Robin, the annoying kid sidekick of Batman. I find it Ironic, that the actor who portrayed the annoying kid sidekick on ST:TNG is no trading in his pips for a cape, but retaining the annoying kid sidekick role. I had thought him above that!

To be fair, his newer roles are usually anything but annoying kid sidekicks. In fact, he tends to portray a villain these days, and he does it quite well! In the series Leverage, he plays a villainous hacker, and in The Big Bang Theory he plays — Well, he plays himself but an viler version of himself. In The Guild he plays Fawkes which actually reminds me of his same character on Big Bang.

All that considering, I find it surprising he is playing Robin. My first choice for him would have been The Blue Beetle, since that was his role on the Series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. However, my second choice for him would have been The Calculator, villainous and Geeky. Nothing says modern-day Wil Wheaton better than that!

The Big Bang Theory on CBS

One of the problems with TV today is the fact that there are nearly no 30-minute sitcoms on the aire any more! The Airwaves seem poluted with reality television, Hour long Dramadies, or Serials! It’s been several seasons since a REAL good thirty minute comedy has been on. That’s why when I first heard about the Television show “The Big Bang Theory” being aired on CBS, I was beside myself with exitement. The premise sounded good, and the thought of being able to just sit down and spend a mindless half hour giggling to myself in front of the television really made my week.

So, then then the first episode came on. I actually did enjoy it, I enjoyed the second one even better. Did I love it? No, but it’s a sitcom. Watch one episode, forget to watch it next week and you won’t find yourself lost on some intertwining plotline..It’s mindless fun! However, the majority of the characters are for lack of a better word “Geeks” or “Nerds” and a lot of their dialog uses large geeky words, which tends to go over the head of their ditzy blonde neighbor, and a large percentage of the average sitcom watching population. Could this hurt it? Quite possibly. However if they tone the geek-speak down a knotch I think CBS might have a winner on their hands with this original take on “Neighbor-Style” sitcoms.