I Survived Yet Another Comic Con

So, I came home to Los Angeles from San Diego yesterday afternoon and it has been an amazing experience once again.

The big trip started this past Tuesday as I caught the train down to San Diego, getting picked up by my fellow NiceGirlsTV staff members before we ventured toward the Coronado Bridge to check into our temporary digs – the incredible Casa de Corazon in the heart of Barrio Logan (and for those in San Diego who may gasp please know that this area has been revitalized over the last few years and is REALLY nice) for the upcoming week.

We hung out with our GREAT temporary landlords Bo and Athena, getting a tour of the house we rented for the week, getting settled in and then venturing out into San Diego to hit up the local grocery stores to stock the place. The evening closed out with all of us munching away on just some of the goodies we purchased, watching the season premieres of Covert Affairs and Suits and having a nice time catching up with each other.

Thankfully, because we arrived a day prior to registration, we were all able to sleep in (probably the most sleep we all got over the course of the week), hung out around the house and then were treated to a fantastic BBQ lunch by our awesome landlords. But, that came to an end and we had to get to registration and preview night.

For me, that meant attempting to hit up the free screenings by Warner Brothers, but the airing order of those new pilots was different than advertised – meaning I had to miss out on the new FOX drama Almost Human (dang it!) in order to get my time in down in the exhibit hall before heading off for a great dinner with the folks over at TV Equals (the other entertainment based site for whom I am a reporter).

Soon enough, though, the event started on Thursday at 10 AM with panels for the new CBS series Intelligence and the mid-season series Star-Crossed on The CW as well as panels for The CW’s Beauty and the Beast and the long-running USA Network dramedy Psych. The panels were filled with the world premiere screenings of the new dramas, great sizzle reels for the returning favorites and celebrities galore.

That afternoon I also got to see the pilot for the new James Spader NBC drama The Blacklist – which is really quite good and with the overwhelming charisma of Spader in the lead how could it not? – followed by two smaller panels, including “Geeks Get Published – and PAID!” – which provided insight by geek writers, dispensing their advice on how to do just that – get published and paid and then ending with “Scoop from Simon and Schuster” where they introduced a whole slew of new books that are coming to bookstands very soon.

On Friday, my day was a bit busier as I had to traverse between two different rooms (thankfully they were directly next door to each other). I started out in the panel for the new Syfy series Defiance – which was insanely hilariously thanks to a cast who obviously enjoys joking around with each other and were just as excited about being at the con as the packed panel room – and then I jumped over to the farewell appearance by the cast and creative minds behind Nikita – which was a bit bittersweet. That was followed by panels for two new TV shows; first, the mid-season series on The CW The 100 and the much anticipated new FOX drama Sleepy Hollow. I highly recommend Sleepy Hollow, which has all the elements of a great drama: great leads who work well off each other, quick pacing, plenty of action and just the right level of humor. The 100 – which I had the opportunity to see before coming to Comic Con 2013 – is the right fit for The CW and includes some big names in the cast like Kelly Hu (The Vampire Diaries and Warehouse 13), Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy) and Paige Turco (Person of Interest).

I finished off the evening with a panel for the popular TNT series Falling Skies and the acclaimed new BBC America drama Orphan Black. Needless to say, both of these panel rooms were almost like standing-room only concerts with highly exuberant fans all around.

As we moved over to Saturday, which is typically the busiest day of Comic Con not to mention the most difficult day for which to plan your schedule around, I had to fine-tune my Saturday schedule many times over, but I ended up attending the panels for the new ABC drama Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and its predecessor Once Upon a Time. We were treated to the 20-minute pilot presentation of Wonderland, which was obviously colorful, entertaining and even included a kick-ass Alice (newcomer Sophie Lowe) that just might attract a lot of viewers. As for Once Upon a Time, we were treated to a sizzle reel, a very funny “Good Morning Storybrooke” skit written by Jane Espenson and acted out by comedians Paul Scheer and Yvette Nicole Brown as well as cast member David Anders. That wasn’t all, though, as a sneak peek at Ariel was featured as the cast and creative team left the stage.

Those fun panels were followed by my first-time attendance at the Independent Film Festival screening for my friend Chris Lilly’s new online series Just Us Guys, which was such a delight to see on the big screen.

The rest of the evening was to be spent with the folks from Grimm, but – sadly – the line to get into that panel room proved to be too long so I headed straight over to the neighboring Hilton Bayfront Hotel for the very emotional farewell appearance by the cast and creative mind behind the popular Syfy series Warehouse 13. My evening was to end with the Lost Girl panel, but at that point I was SO extremely tired that I opted out of the panel, heading back to the rental house to call it a night.

Thankfully, Sunday – the final day of the convention – was a relatively chill day for me with the awards ceremony for the Independent Film Festival for which my friend Chris did not win a trophy, but gained great exposure and plenty of networking opportunities followed by some time down in the Exhibit Hall to snap as many pictures as I could and then followed by a cool panel with a handful of really great authors including Rachel Caine and Amber Benson (among others) speaking about the witches, fey, monsters and mortals that populate their books. My evening ended by having a relaxing dinner with a great group of friends at the nearby Seaport Village.

That isn’t the end of my trip to San Diego, as the NiceGirlsTV staff had our rental house for an entire week and we were afforded the luxury of having just a little over a day to hang out, rest and relax before going back to the real world.

Needless to say, once again, Comic-Con was an incredible experience for all of us and all of the NiceGirlsTV staff came home with all kinds of amazing tales, crazy-funny stories, loads of swag and lots and lots of writing to get done for all of the panel and press rooms for which we attended.

Til next year!