Last night's latest episode of Lost, Dr. Linus, had plenty of good going for it, along with some bad.

The good: The parallel universe displayed Ben Linus, who had been portrayed often as a very, very nasty piece of work, was capable of good.  Remarkably, the "real" island story also showed the same, as found himself in a situation wherein his lies could not free him.

As I had mentioned before, I suspect that what we're seeing in this last season of Lost is, simultaneously, the conclusion and the epilogue.  The conclusion to the story is what is happening on the island.  The epilogue (or, if you want, the "happy ending") is what we're seeing unfold in that parallel world.  Thus far, and with the exception of the Kate story (which ended inconclusively) and the Sayid story (which also felt like an opening salvo to a bigger story), all the parallel universe episodes have presented our familiar characters experiencing positive outcomes.

Meanwhile, on the island (and this is the bad), it's obvious the producers weren't kidding when they said Lost was influenced by Stephen King's novel The Stand.  When that was first mentioned many months ago (and, sorry, I cannot recall exactly where I read it), I couldn't understand what they were talking about.  The Stand, a story involving the end of the world and "good" and "bad" sides joining for one final battle, seemed as far removed from Lost as possible.  However, as the last sentence I just wrote indicates, it appears we're going exactly in this direction.

There is the fake-Locke side and there is the Jack Shephard side, and it appears we're heading to a major "Stand"-like confrontation.

And I couldn't be more disappointed if indeed this is the case.

Why?  Because Lost has, despite some obvious influences and references, been an incredibly original and surprising show.  It has defied expectations and confounded even while elaborating/provide answers to the questions it poses.  And to wind down with what could conceivably be a "good" versus "bad" grouping...I don't know.

It feels...weak.

Like the producers ran out of ideas and decided to simply use the framework of something that came before to end this whole thing.

But, despite saying this, I'll try to keep an open mind.  Perhaps they have a few rabbits up their sleeves yet...

Sometimes these things happen: A new show premieres, goes through many episodes, and audiences appear to give it a collective shrug.

I have heard almost nothing about Human Target since it premiered.  Based on a DC Comic co-created by the legendary Len Wein, the show is coming back after a brief hiatus with new episodes.

Now, I haven't seen all the previously aired episodes yet (time constraints...I still haven't watched so much as a second of this season's 24, either!), but based on the first two, Pilot and Rewind, this is a fun, if not the most super-realistic, action adventure show.

There are differences between the show and the comic, and those who are fans of the printed version of Christopher Chance may balk at the TV show's changes.  In the comics (especially the most recently published ones) Chance is a master of disguise who very intimately takes on the roles of his employers.  He "becomes" a human target because he becomes the intended victim.  In the TV show, at least in these two episodes, he simply remains close to the intended target/victim.  Close enough to sniff out the villains intending to do the victim harm.

As I said before, the show is certainly not one of the most realistic around.  In the Pilot episode, Chance and the potential victim fashion a functional parachute in a few seconds flat.  In Rewind, we have Chance flipping an airliner as if it were a WWII fighter.  This later sequence is particularly silly because it makes no sense for many reasons.  First, can a bulky airliner actually be "flipped"?  Secondly, and even more importantly, the need for flipping the plane is to get it closer to higher, faster moving air so they could extinguish a fire inside the aircraft.  Why not simply raise the plane's altitude until it is within this "faster moving" air?  And, seriously, how much faster can this air possibly be going that it alone can extinguish the fire?

But having said all that, this is a show that pushes the envelope of silliness yet has a trio of likable protagonists and you push the silliness aside, accept it, and enjoy the ride.

At least I did for the those first two episodes.

There have been those (like Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jenson) who have offered great praise for last night's Sayid-centric episode of Lost.

Alas, I'm not going that route.

Was it me, or did the whole thing feel way, waaaay too forced?  Sayid goes from being a good guy with some very heavy baggage (he was an Iraqi torturer.  If you recall the first season of the show, he was presented as quite reluctant to use those skills on Sawyer) to SPOILER!!! a very, very bad guy.

All in the span of a few minutes and one conversation with anti-Locke.

I know he was tempted.  I know his faith in the people at the temple was low to begin with (and even lower after he did what the leader of the temple asked him to do).  But the way he so quickly turned on his principles for Locke's offered temptation felt...forced.  Now, I know, I know, I'm not one of the writers of the show.  I have no ownership of his character and, should the producers wish to have him walking the island in a clown outfit in the next episode, who am I to say they're wrong?

But after all these years, as a viewer you get a certain understanding of the characters and, when they do something that feels wrong, there better be a damn good reason for it.

Consider Sayid's actions in this episode versus those of Harold Perrineau's Michael in season 2's concluding episode "Live Together, Die Alone".  When Michael goes very, very dark, we find it is because he wants to save his son's life as well as, selfishly, get off the island.  However, as revolting as those actions were, we could understand -while not condone- his desperation.

I don't feel the same with what Sayid does here.

Yes, he very much loves the woman he lost, and obviously misses her.  Further, he has plenty of reason for disliking the people of the temple (especially their leader)...its just that, how does he know anti-Locke will be good to his word and somehow bring his lost love back?  It seems a bit of a stretch to simply trust his word and murder, in very cold blood, two people and then sit back and watch a whole bunch of others get murdered, on the off-chance that he might get his lost love back.  Was there more to his meeting with anti-Locke?  Was there something anti-Locke showed him to prove he could do what he said?

Or has Sayid simply lost all humanity?  Maybe future episodes will clarify this.

Btw, the parallel-universe story was engaging, and the first to present a genuine "what the hell?" moment at its end.  I'm curious to see where that goes!

After seeing the first half of season 1, I find myself stubbornly gray about the prospect of more FlashForward.  On the one hand, there are intriguing aspects to the show.  On the other hand, and unlike Lost (the show it strives mightily to emulate, even taking two of the actors from that drama over to them), the characters and situation aren't quite as interesting, their obstacles not quite as dangerous, as the island adventure.

Nonetheless, after watching (finally!) the final of the first half episodes, I found that while I wasn't hellbent to see more FlashForward, neither was I so disappointed in the product that I wanted to drop it entirely.  Of course, the bottom line with any TV show are the ratings, and FF's ratings, at least in the U.S., have plummeted.  However, there might be hope for fans of the show, as it appears to be watched elsewhere...

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/03/01/will-overseas-fans-save-abcsflashforward/

As I was watching it last night (thank you, DVR), Good Intentions, the second to last episode of season 3 of Burn Notice, had something about it that felt...odd.

It was a good episode, don't get me wrong (in fact, it was pretty damn good, which is why this show remains one of my favorites), but still, something about it was off.

After the show was over, it hit me: Jeffrey Donovan's Michael Weston, the protagonist, was strangely absent from the major goings on within this episode.  Burn Notice has created a certain pattern for itself.  There is usually a "big" plot that we see in bits and pieces throughout the season and an "individual" plot which occupies each (you guessed it) individual episode.  The "big" plot involves Weston figuring out what a British assassin is up to (this was pretty much revealed in this episode and served to lead us into this week's season finale), while the "individual" plot involved a very clever kidnapper (24's Tony Almeida, actor Carlos Bernard) whose reasons for turning to crime wind up being quite heartfelt.

Given the fact that we had a pretty big guest star in the episode in the form of Carlos Bernard, it was rather surprising that there isn't even one scene wherein Weston and the kidnapper interact (the only time they meet, in fact, and without getting too SPOIILERY, is at the end of the episode when Weston hauls him out of a fire.  However, I suspect that Bernard wasn't even there when the sequence was filmed, that the person Donovan carried out (we never really see his face at that point) was an extra or double).  There are only two other scenes where Weston and Bernard's character were "close" together, when Weston follows Bernard to a bridge (he's very far in the distance and I doubt the actual actor was there) and at a restaurant.  The restaurant scene never showed a long shot of the group together, and every shot of Bernard in the restaurant was close up, which meant that he could have been in a studio doing those shots well before or after Donovan's Michael Weston showed up.

In the end it means little, I suppose, that the two actors never actually interacted in the episode.  Perhaps their schedules didn't fit.  Perhaps the producers were running late with the season finale and had to use up more of Donovan's time and therefore were forced to cut his appearances in this second to the last episode.  Whatever happened, the people behind the scenes managed to pull something good out of what might have been a pressure situation.

Regardless, while the episode itself was enjoyable (and I love love love the quote (I hope I'm not mangling this too much) "When trying to get into a business, a clipboard is often as good as a skeleton key"), it remains a strange one, at least IMHO.

But I'm still very much looking forward to the season finale...

The last time I talked about Lost, I referred to the "parallel" universe as something that might test my endurance for the show.  After seeing more episodes involving this parallel universe, I'm coming to the conclusion that it is a significant thing, indeed.

I'll be talking SPOILERS as well as my own theories about what is what (and this part, admittedly, could be entirely wrong), but read on if you don't mind getting some plot reveals...

So the big question is: What the heck is this "parallel" universe thing about?  I mean, the survivors of the plane crash are still on the island, a little worse for wear, and yet are also shown in a reality wherein they completed the trip to L.A. and are living their lives out from that point on.

What the heck is that all about?

Here's my theory: The L.A. "parallel" universe story is the season long conclusion of the Lost storyline.  Bear with me here, because what I'm about to theorize (and, again, it is only my theory and could be waaaay off) is rather hard to explain...

When the atomic bomb was set off, it set off the chain of events (which we're seeing as the survivors face their current difficulties with the anti-Locke and the ghost of Jacob) that will lead to the ultimate resolution of the island and her fate.  When all that is done, time will be reset and the Oceanic plane that crashed will then NOT crash and the characters will go on with their lives as presented in the "parallel" universe.

Why do I think the "parallel" universe takes place after the events on the island?  Because in last night's episode Jack Shephard found he had a scar on his stomach.  He was perplexed by this and, while speaking to his mother, inquired if/when he had his appendix removed.  Now, I don't have the premiere episode of the show handy right now, but I recall Jack sustained an injury from the original plane crash that required stitching, and he had Kate do the job.  So if this scar is from the crash, and he didn't recall how it occurred (indeed, he didn't even seem to notice it until well after the flight), then it proves that the parallel world and the "regular" world are indeed connected.  The only logical way I can see that being the case is if the parallel world's events take place after the events still occurring on the island.

And consider this, too: Almost all the events so far depicted in the parallel world result in better things for the cast.  In this episode, Jack reconciles with his son.  In the previous episodes, Locke seems to finally accept his condition and the love of his fiancee.  Hurley is in a FAR better place, mentally, than he was on the island, and Kate and Claire meet up which, given one key piece of information Jack gleans from his father's will, seems to lay the foundation for those three eventually meeting up with each other (and, possibly, Jack and Kate forming a relationship).

Given all this, how much you want to bet that Sawyer and Juliet meet in this parallel universe and go on to marry and have a (similar) happy ending, something which, given what happened to Juliet, was impossible to happen on the island?

Again, the parallel world, at least as depicted so far, is a better place, a place where all the character's demons are resolved.  What better (and sneakier) way of offering us a happy ending than by doing so right under our very noses?

I've had this episode, the last before the show went on its temporary break, in the DVR for what seemed like forever (actually, since the 30th of November of 2009) but never got around to finally watching it...until yesterday.

Revisiting the FlashForward universe, I have to admit, was a pleasant enough experience, although the similarities or attempted similarities to Lost became even more apparent.  This episode, entitled A561984, brought in the element of oddball numbers (and "a" letter!) to the show, something that Lost had almost from the very beginning.

There are also story type weirdness: Why would the scientists have a press conference wherein they admit to being the cause of the blackout, yet in the same episode one of the two scientists insists (despite, if memory serves, previously believing it to be the case) they might not be the cause?  Further, we're presented with evidence that they might not be involved as the episode rolls along, eliciting a big "huh?" from me.

I was also amused that finally, finally it appeared Dylan Simcoe would be extricated from the Hospital he's been in since like forever (recall that he's been in the hospital since shortly after the blackout and Agent Janice Hawk was shot, "died" on the operating table, was revived, and left the hospital and returned to active duty in the FBI while this kid, with no obvious physical issues (he is autistic) remains in his new home away from home...Must have some really good insurance!).

But despite these issues, the episode itself was actually quite enjoyable, with the big new bit of information offered being that Mark Benford may be the one responsible for Agent Noh's dead.  But is he really, or is the woman who told him this (herself someone with considerable secrets, it would appear) simply playing them all?

Given the behind the scenes intrigue on this show (David S. Goyer is gone, as is Marc Guggenheim) I can't help but wonder if, when the show finally returns, it might suffer.  This happened to recent revamped version of The Bionic Woman, a show that began in an interesting enough way but never seemed to get its footing.  After several behind the scenes people were gone, its tone changed and it limped off into oblivion.

Could the same happen to FlashForward?  I can't help but think that there is danger ahead...

Hate when these sort of things happen...I'm looking at the new and upcoming DVDs at Amazon and notice there's a Head Case: The Complete Series boxed set available.

"Complete Series"?!  Does that...could that mean...is it possible...

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/head-case-cancelled-season-four/

Damn!!!

I enjoyed the show.  It was twisted yet hilarious, with some truly memorable appearances by stars playing equally twisted versions of themselves.  First Reno 911! is cancelled and now this.  I'm running out of original comedy shows that I enjoy watching!

I don't know about you guys, but I've found it hard to find the time to catch up on TV viewing.  The Metropolis posting notwithstanding, I'm behind on just about every show...I haven't seen a minute of the latest 24, and I have every episode of The Human Target on the DVR but haven't seen a minute of that, either.  Waiting to be seen, also, are the last two aired (at least so far) episodes of both Fringe and Flashforward.

So it took a while but I finally got to see the "Absolute Justice" episode of Smallville.

First up, I'm a bit confused...the action takes place in Metropolis (no, not the 1927 movie), and I'm getting the feeling that the action has moved away from the growing Clark Kent in (yes) Smallville and moving him to the city that has, among other things, Lois Lane and The Daily Planet.

So...does the show have any ties to Smallville anymore?  And is there any reason to hold off on showing Clark as Superman?  I mean, in this two parter, he had a Superman "shield" over his chest by the end of the episode (and I'm guessing he's been shown in this black trenchcoat costume before this).  So why not take the next step and have him wear the actual Superman costume?

I suppose it has to do with lawyerly things...like movie rights, creative rights, etc. etc.

Anyway, I've delayed it long enough...My impressions on "Absolute Justice", the first full episode of Smallville I've seen in its nine years on the air:

Uh...it was...ok...I guess.

I mean, for a TV show on one of the smaller (no pun intended) networks, they did pretty well with the Justice Society heroes they showed.  They even developed an interesting enough (the screenplay was by noted comic book author Geoff Johns) story that incorporated and yet updated some of the comic book concepts previously developed as to why this group "disappeared" (in the comics, it was a red scare senate/government thing).

HOWEVER (oh, and SPOILERS FOLLOW)...

Did they have to kill off so many of the characters even as they were first introduced?  And by such a weak menace as the Icicle?!

I mean, if someone as powerful as Dr. Fate, perhaps the most powerful of the characters (other than Clark Kent/youngSuperman) could get killed by him, then why should we feel that these guys were something special?  And why weren't the heroes watching Icicle's comatose dad 24/7 so they could pick homicidal Jr. when he came to visit?!

Worse than that, however, is that the episode moved along very leisurely, never really building up much steam and offering a climax that proved rather tepid.

On the other hand, positives include Michael Shanks as Carter Hall/Hawkman.  While I never cared much for him on Stargate, his appearances on other shows (for example, Burn Notice), have been a pleasant surprise.  He can show an angry edge which was never really present in the long running Stargate.  Someone oughta give him a starring role somewhere.

So, in the end, I'd give this two part episode, at best, two stars out of four.  Average time killer but nothing, alas, terribly memorable.

I stumbled upon that show a few years back and found it enjoyable.  In time, however, it started to...bother me.  I suspect the episode that did it was the M.I.A. themed bike.  And then came the Fire Men truck (a "tribute" to the heroes of 9/11).  Suddenly the show felt, at least to me, like exploitation.  The Teutuls were willing to jump on any bandwagon and exploit others emotions to promote their bikes.

Regardless of my feelings, success came fast and furiously for them.  I had stopped watching the show but, one day, found it on and was surprised that the little garage they worked out of was now a massive complex, and that Paul Sr. and Jr.'s relationship (never the family's strong point) had finally collapsed.  Paul Jr. was gone, and Paul Sr. looked...withered.  Perhaps the emotional toll of the past few years had really gotten to him.

Now, the show is done, and here's an interesting article on its demise, and the one person on the show the writer states will be missed.  The biggest surprise in the article, and something I wasn't aware of, is just how sour the relationship between the two Pauls was.  Suing your own son?!

The article follows:

http://www.popeater.com/2010/02/10/american-chopper-mikey/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl2|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2F2010%2F02%2F10%2Famerican-chopper-mikey%2F

To begin: No, I'm not changing my mind.  I still LOVE the show.

But this parallel universe thing...is it going to go through the whole season?  If it is, I beg the producers of the show: please please please begin to link the parallel universe, the one where the Oceanic flight made it to LAX, to the one wherein the same crew is still trapped on the island and facing the Locke that isn't Locke.

That later storyline is so much more interesting, at least so far, to the one featuring the passengers making it to their destination.

At least so far.

I know this might not mean much to most people, but I've enjoyed The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest... show, and not just for video of people doing silly (or downright stupid) things, but for the commentary by motley crew of has beens, never-was, and comedians.  Leif Garrett's comments were/are, like many of the others, quite humorous.

Alas, it appears Mr. Garrett hasn't overcome his own personal demons:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/03/leif.garrett.arrest/index.html

Here's an amusing clip from the show, featuring commentary from, among others, Mr. Garrett:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmXtZZFRkrE

So last night was the premiere of Lost's final (sixth) season with the two parted LA X.

One of the more intriguing things that the producers and writers of the show have managed to do these past seasons -and very effectively- is reveal a lot in an hour...and yet not reveal all that much at all.  In some ways, questions are answered while a slew of other questions are asked, and the constant interest in providing resolution(s) propels viewers like me to stick around week after week.

Not to diminish, of course, the wonderful acting of the large cast.  All the main characters of the show, flawed though they are, are compelling, and each and every one of their story lines is fascinating in its own way.

The show ended last season with (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) Jack Shephred, perhaps the closest to a "main" lead in the show, convincing the others that by detonating an atomic bomb in an anomaly within the island, time would be reset and the crash that brought them to the mysterious island would be averted.  In the action packed finale, the bomb is hurled into the well with the anomaly, but it doesn't detonate.  Juliet, another fascinating character within the show, is thrown into the well and, ultimately, detonates the bomb.  After the bang, we're hurled into LA X Part 1, and find that Jack's plan worked...

Or did it?

The two parter presents viewers with yet another mystery:  The flight of Oceanic is recreated, only this time it does not crash into the island.  This time, the island is revealed to be submerged beneath the water, perhaps for many, many years.

And yet, a concurrent storyline finds the exact same cast waking up bruised and bloody on the island.  The bomb apparently hurled the group to the present time (did I forget to mention they were in 1977?) but kept them otherwise intact.

So which reality is the "real" one?

Another mystery to ponder.  And the link below, from Entertainment Weekly, offers a mini-interview with the show's producers.  They offer some thoughts on what we've just seen:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/02/02/lost-premiere-damon-carlton/

Feeling a bit under the weather (combined with a slew of work to do) equals less time to post.  However, I'll MAKE time tonight to see the premiere of the final season of Lost.

I don't think enough good things can be said about this show.  Granted, it is episodic TV and there will be highs and there did come some lows (the second season, which focused way too much on the passengers of the "tail section" of the airplane was, to my mind, ultimately the least intriguing thing the show has done, even worse than the whole Nikki and Paulo subplot the fans were livid about.  At least with N & P they cut it off fairly quickly.  They spent the whole season with the tail section characters and ultimately did away with pretty much all of them with little lingering aftereffects...although I did appreciate Michelle Rodriguez's cameo last season).

An early review of the first hour of the two hour premiere can be found here:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43842

As is the case, there are some spoilers there, if you highlight the blank spaces.  Not terribly big spoilers, but they had me curious...

Now that's more like it!

I noted my general disappointment with the previous, first new episode of the second half of season three (did you get all that?!), "A Dark Road", and lo and behold Burn Notice comes back with the smoking hot "Friendly Fire".

This is what Burn Notice, at its best, is: Clever and funny yet dramatic and tense.

Well done!

I'm looking forward to the next episode!

And so it ends...

If there was ever a show that had me this close to walking more times in its brief, 27 episode or so, two season run than Dollhouse, I couldn't name it.  Come to think of it, I actually did walk away from the show toward the late middle of season 2, and its pure luck that I got sucked into it again.

Despite all the lame episodes, unfocused plots, blank (literally!) characters, I'm glad I more or less stuck with it.  I suspect time will be kind to the show.  People will now have the option to focus on the show's truly good episodes (granted, they may amount to something like 30-40% of the 27 episode run) and ignore all the pretty bad ones.

And once they're shifted through Dollhouse's entirety, they'll find there was something good going on, after all.

Yes, it took waaaay too long to get to this good stuff.  Yes, the show was incredibly unfocused at times, and one wondered what exactly the point of it all was.  Yes, the show was also too meek about its subject matter...the Dollhouse was a whorehouse, even if the loftier concepts of what makes a human personality and an exploration of the dangers of technology were its deeper core issues.

But despite it all, the show ended with a very pleasant bang.

In fact, I'd put the last 6 episodes of the series on a par with some of the better works supervised by Joss Whedon, and while Epitaph Two, the concluding episode of the show, was a little confusing with some of the new characters that, at least to my eyes, were introduced (I have yet to see the DVD exclusive season one finale Epitaph One), it featured a satisfactory wrap up of all the concepts of the show, and a particularly touching (even if sad) resolution of the Ballard/Echo relationship.

If there was one element that struck me as almost too expected, it was the return of Alpha, the show's arch villain.  As Joss Whedon has done a couple of time, perhaps too many times in other shows, he's made the arch villain turn into, if not a hero, at least a "good guy".  I preferred the maniacal villain we saw previously, and its hard to swallow given some of the grotesque murders he was responsible for that the cast would seemingly accept his conversion to good guy status so completely.

Then again, I suspect that plot line, like several others, was compressed in an effort to offer the show a proper, complete resolution, and I can't be too unhappy that, in at least this respect, they did give the viewers an ending.

So Dollhouse, you perplexed me, annoyed me, made me feel like I was wasting my time.  But in the end, you found your voice, you found your wings, and you soared.  Too little, too late, some might rightfully argue, but I'll be the first to admit you entertained me on the way out.

Last week the second half of season 3 of Burn Notice kicked off with "A Dark Road".  The big draw, I thought, was a reunion of Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, buddies for many years on the popular cop show Cagney and Lacey.

Alas, the episode itself was something of a mess, at least to me.  Mind you, I love Burn Notice.  I love the interactions of the characters and the quirky A-Team meets James Bond meets Mission: Impossible vibe.

However, like many things, the best episodes present a great balance of elements, and in this case I suspect the episode was a disappointment because too many things were stirring in the pot.  We have, of course, a need to give viewers a re-cap.  Season 3's first half ended on a particularly tense note, wherein we witness our hero, Michael Weston, coldly assassinated a man who was trying to pull his strings (and get his girlfriend, Fiona, killed).  Michael killing someone was shocking enough, but the resulting fallout results in his contact within the CIA also being killed.  This is apparently the first step in an effort to "clean up" the resulting messes, by people unknown.

Next on the target list...maybe...is Michael Weston himself.

But before you can say "Could they have the guts to make Tyne Daly the cleanup woman?" (hey, stranger things have happened, and I knew Ms. Daly was involved in the episode!) we're introduced to the show's main subplot, wherein Michael Weston performs his good samaritan act and gets a recently widowed woman out of some nonsensical danger involving a group that instigates car crashes for fun and profit.  It is there that Tyne Daly shows up as a public record keeper who is befriended by Michael's mom (played by guess who) who must, in the course of the episode, use Ms. Daly's character in ways she comes to regret.

Perhaps my displeasure with the overall episode lies in the fact that the show built up such a good head of steam going into its mid-season break.  I was eager to see more of the "Michael has to deal with a deadly 'cleaner'" plot than the rather lame accident causing plot.  Further, the main draw of the episode, the renewed pairing of Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, was rather dull.  They shared only a few scenes together and never really interacted to any memorable degree.

Now, having said all that, I would hasten to add that we are dealing with a TV show here, one with many, many episodes in its run.  While this episode wasn't my cup of tea, I'll be there next (this!) week for the subsequent episode.

Burn Notice remains, despite my overall disappointment with this episode, worthy of following.

At least according to Entertainment Weekly:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20339290,00.html

Baywatch Nights, Joanni Loves Chachi, The Brady Brides...sheesh...a who's who (or what's what) of some truly dreadful spinoffs.  And just when you think you've gotten to the worst of the lot appears...

AFTER-M.A.S.H.!!!!!

I'd like to be a contrarian and think of good TV show spin offs...

Hmmm...

Torchwood, the spin-off of the long running Dr. Who is quite good.

Uh...

...hmmm...

Give me a moment...or three...

Found this video at /Film.  Someone took it upon themselves to re-edit the crash of Oceanic's flight in Lost.  Given the show's use of time, there was never a linear narrative of these events, and the presentation here is pretty cool (and, by the way, if you don't recognize/remember at least two sequences in this presentation, don't worry.  They weren't part of the show itself but rather deleted scenes found on either the DVD or web-isodes):

Hollywood and its movie making machinery does at times seem to jump onto whatever is currently "hot".  The latest such hot trend appears to be rebooting sometimes successful franchises:

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/01/21/reboots-sequels-spider-man-jurassic-park/

Of note, the one "reboot" that wasn't, at least at that point, a franchise was the Hulk films.  Granted, there were cartoons in the 1960's and a successful Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV show in the late 70's/early 80's (followed by some made for TV movies), but there were only two theatrical Hulk films, the one directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana (which, to my mind, was a miss...too cerebral when it should have been focused on mayhem!) and the Edward Norton feature that sorta/kinda rebooted the thing.  Both films pulled in roughly the same amount of money, therefore both were considered, at best, only lukewarm successes.  I wonder if anyone at Marvel is daring enough to risk the chance that third time's the charm?

As for James Bond, while there have been many Bonds, it felt like both the Pierce Brosnan and the Daniel Craig versions of the character were indeed reboots rather than simply having a new actor play the role.  Granted, there was a big difference between the Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and George Lazenby versions of the character, but they were all part of the same Cold War milieu.

While I was disappointed overall with the Pierce Brosnan Bond films (a case where the actor was perfect for the role but the movies themselves simply failed to deliver, IMHO), I had to give the makers of the franchise credit for realizing the world had changed and Bond was a "dinosaur" from another era.  With Daniel Craig, they took this one step forward and did effectively create a whole new origin for the old character, one removed completely from the Cold War.

As for Spider-Man's potential reboot (the real focus of this article), I'm curious to see what can be done but I wonder if maybe its a little too soon.  The fact is that the three films Sam Raimi directed were huge hits, and the general public might have such an ingrained idea of what the character is all about that suddenly bringing him back to his origin and high school might feel like a retread.

Then again, my crystal ball has been known to be foggy now and again. 

I am very curious to see the British version of Life on Mars, and not just because I'm a fan of David Bowie's music.

No, I've heard good things about the show but only managed to record its second season (I didn't watch it as I wanted to start from the beginning...maybe one day I'll get to).  I also gave the American version of the show a try, but found it very boring.

So too, apparently, does Slate Magazine's Seth Stevenson, who presents a review of both the British and American version of the shows and how the American version failed in so many ways compared to the original British version.  And the American version's conclusion, Mr. Stevenson argues, may well have "the dumbest finale in TV history":

http://www.slate.com/id/2240845/pagenum/all/#p2

Having just posted a note about the fact that Fox may be developing an American version of Torchwood, a British show I have seen and really enjoy, I'm suddenly wondering even more if an American version of Torchwood need be made.  Oh well, we'll always have the originals.

Although from the article linked below, it seems more like a "continuation" of the original British show (a point the article itself makes) due to the fact that they have much of the behind the scenes talent involved and may have John Barrowman reprise his role of Captain Jack Harkness (the only other major character that would then be missing would be Eve Myles' Gwen Cooper).

The story follows:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/01/20/fox-developing-a-us-adaptation-of-torchwood/

I'm a pretty big fan of Torchwood, although not every episode has been a complete winner.  The characterizations and stories have been fun and at times startling, particularly regarding the fates of various cast members and the frank sexuality presented within.

It is this later aspect that makes me leery about a U.S. production of the show.  Fox was obviously nervous enough about the religious themes in a Fringe episode to shelf it for a year.  How will they deal with a central character who is omnisexual?  A character who jumps on almost anyone or anything, and who had an extended relationship with a man for the last couple of seasons of the show?

I just don't see it happening on American TV.  Not yet anyway.  But if the writers and producers nonetheless can work around this and give us more Torchwood, I'm certainly in.

The following is a trailer for the first season of the show:

A long time back I posted my belief that U2's first single from their latest album, Get On Your Boots, sounded an awful lot like Elvis Costello's Pump It Up.  Looks like both U2 and Mr. Costello felt the same, as they concluded the season 2 premier of the very watchable Spectacle with an amusing mash up of both songs.

I've said it before and it bears repeating: I like the television show Fringe.  I don't love Fringe.  And seeing two "new" episodes back to back certainly brings that point home.  The first episode, which aired this past Monday, was actually a leftover from the first season.  It was an episode that, no doubt due to the religious material presented within, made the execs at Fox squirm.  I suspect they quietly shelved it and, when they had nothing better to show on a quiet Monday they equally quietly showed it.  If there was any advertisement about the episode, it wasn't much.  If my guesses regarding why they didn't show the episode last year are correct, they could have advertised the episode as one "almost too hot for TV!" or perhaps "so controversial it wasn't shown in the first season!"

That might have gotten some people watching.

Instead, they pretty much dumped it and were off an running with the next, really "new" episode, yesterday's Johari Window.  In many ways, these two episodes illustrate what's good, and bad, about this show.

Intriguing premise?  Check.  Eye-popping cinematography?  Check  Good acting and direction?  Double check.  But the story just...meanders.  It never quite gels or intrigues like J. J. Abrams' more successful TV shows.  These "one and done" episodes don't leave us gasping for more.  They play out like what they are: An X-Files homage.  Worse, there remain many overarching story lines introduced since the show's inception that, seemingly, have been forgotten.

Remember the business about a super-scientific organization that is so brazen in its "research" that they didn't mind conducting their horrifying (and horrific) experiments in plain sight?  The group that wasn't squirmish about fatalities?  Haven't heard much of them.  Are they gone?  Did they morph into the people from the other dimension (who want to claw their way into ours)?

What about Agent Dunham and her lover, whose memories were stuck in her head?  Granted, they resolved this particular plot line, but it never really felt particularly important, and no mention is made at all about what she went through anymore.

Then again, there's Peter Bishop.  Remember when he was first introduced?  He was a scam artist, someone who bounced around nations making a quick buck.  When he got to Boston, there were hints that his dark past there (in the form of...what?  Gangsters?  Loan Sharks?  We're never really sure) would catch up to him.  That plot point has been AWOL for a very long time now.

And what about Agent Dunham's sister and her child?  The one that was fleeing from her abusive husband and currently living in Dunham's apartment?  Haven't seen much of them, nor of the extremely religious FBI agent that appeared toward the end of last season and aided Peter when Dunham disappeared.  What happened to her?

That's not to say all these plot points are worthy of returning to.  I suspect these so far abandoned plot lines were shots in the dark by the writers of the show, their attempts to expand on the characterizations and offer viewers some more "meat".  However, they now linger in the ether, story possibilities that may never be, and we're offered mostly stand alone "creature feature" stories and one bigger story regarding interdimensional invasion that is taking its time in unfolding.

Still, the cinematography is great, every dollar spent in the show's production shines on the screen.  The direction and acting is good.

I like the show.

I just don't love it.

Given the fact that Simon is leaving American Idol, the people at Entertainment Weekly have put together an amusing and interesting list of top 10 "shocking" TV exits.  I'm particularly fond of #6:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20336329,00.html

Things are slowly normalizing themselves after spending an inordinate number of hours setting up the new computer.  In fact, there were a couple of hours available to catch up on some TV...

Fringe: "Unearthed" aired this past Monday (January 11th) and another episode will air this Thursday so the question is: Why?  It would appear Unearthed is an unaired episode from the show's first season (it even has appearances by the now deceased Agent Charlie Francis).  However, many, including myself, wondered if this was an "alternate universe" episode, ie one that featured the characters on another of those multiple worlds the show has already acknowledged exist.

Nope.

I suspect this episode, which they say was filmed during the show's first season but wasn't aired until now, was kept away from the airwaves (and the first season DVD boxed sets) because it featured the very touchy subject of religion.  It was revealed in this episode that Anna Torv's Agent Dunham is a(n)....atheist.  Or at least an agnostic.  Further, it was hinted that Peter Bishop also doesn't think much about the whole thing (although he doesn't come out and say it like Agent Dunham).  While I think its interesting to reveal this about Agent Dunham's character, the show's producers and writers eventually had to reveal the "whys" of her non-religiosity, and in this they chickened out, methinks.  I suspect most people who are agnostics/atheists didn't develop these ideals because their mothers/fathers were very religious and their religion proved not to help them stop abuse/disease/any-other-very-bad-thing.  In the case of Agent Dunham, she states her mother was very religious but her prayers were ineffective against an abuse father and, therefore, she turned away from religion.

While I suspect the whole religion angle was what made Fox store away this episode and finally dump it on a Monday (not the show's regular time slot) and without much fanfare, the episode itself, alas, wasn't all that good, either.  There were interesting elements in it, for sure, but overall the episode didn't gel quite as well as I had hoped.  Then again, of the J. J. Abrams TV shows I've seen (Alias, Lost, and Fringe) this one, while it remains entertaining enough, also remains the least of this group of three.  Still, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't good enough to keep watching.  Even non-knockout J. J. Abrams is better than most TV shows currently airing!

Dollhouse: "Getting Closer" aired on the 8th, and it is the third from the last episode of the show that will ever air.  I've made mention many times before how this show kept letting me down, and there were too many times I was ready to walk away from it (and one time I actually did).  However, I'm glad that I'm here for the show's finale.  Say what you will (and I have) about the too-many very horrible episodes aired before, the show's lack of focus and direction (at least before), and the general confusion of what its all about, but the fact is that to me the show is going out with a bang.  The only real complaint that can be leveled against Getting Closer is that there was almost TOO much plot in it.  However, given the fact that Joss Whedon and company are trying to give the show a proper finale and tie up everything, they can and should be forgiven for presenting us such a rich, full meal.

The reveals about characters (not to mention the shocking death of one of the characters) had me breathless.  In some ways, and without getting too out there, this show reminds me a little of comic book legend Jack Kirby's New Gods book (and I am referring here solely to the original 11 issues of the New Gods while ignoring the other series tied into this book and the various reboots and graphic novels).  While the New Gods feature some of the comic book legends all time best stories (IMHO, and this coming from someone who loved his Marvel comics work as well!), I felt that the first few issues were hit and miss, almost like Jack Kirby jumped into this project with plenty of ideas but it took him a few issues to find his "footing" and deliver the best at the end, when the book was, unfortunately, headed for cancellation.

And so it is, it seems to me anyway, with Dollhouse.  Joss Whedon is most assuredly capable of great TV shows, but the fact is that Dollhouse began very badly, with only a few episodes here and there worthy of watching.  When the second season rolled around, it felt like Mr. Whedon and company were still trying to get their footing.  Now, at the very end, and like Jack Kirby with the New Gods, you almost wish they were given a chance to continue, to see where they go, but that is not to be.

Unlike Mr. Kirby back in the 1970's, Mr. Whedon was given enough lead time to wrap the whole production up.  I hope the end is as good as the episodes thus far leading up to it.

(Just a little random note here:  My all time favorite Jack Kirby comic book has to be New Gods #6, "The Glory Boat".  Seldom has a single issue of a comic book given me chills.  This one has.  For those curious, the issue can be found reprinted in the second volume of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus.  For those really curious, I recommend all four volumes).

The new version of the old favorite (at least my all time favorite) came and went and pretty much all the critics blasted it.  Well, it's coming to DVD should you be interested, and these are some of the goodies it will have:

http://www.dvdreview.com/news/viewnews.asp?id=11563

Although I felt the show started better than many of the critics felt, by the end it self-destructed pretty thoroughly.  Granted, the original Prisoner TV show ended with a real head-scratcher of a finale, but at least the original show's individual episodes stood on their own without the bewildering conclusion.  In effect, you could enjoy the original episodes despite the ending.

Alas, the new mini-series was building up to the end.  The individual episodes were not self-sustaining, and when we got to the ending and discovered it made no real sense, then the whole thing, alas, fell apart.

IMHO, of course!

It's always been a source of amusement/curiosity to me when we reach the dates of science fictional works, famous or somewhat forgotten.

The two biggest works and the year their events were to take place carried those (then) far flung future in their titles: George Orwell had Nineteen Eighty-Four, Stanley Kubrick/Arthur C. Clarke had 2001: A Space Odyssey.  When originally conceived, Nineteen Eight-Four's events were 35 years into the future.  In the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey, director Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke were imagining events 33 years into their future.  Note, however, that 2001 was based on a short story by Mr. Clark entitled The Sentinel.  This short story was written some 53 years before the far flung future of the year 2001.  I don't believe, though, that the short story had a fixed date when it was meant to occur, unlike the movie/book 2001.

Other famous dates we've passed?  How about the date Skynet becomes self-aware, bringing on the events of The Terminator films?  Skynet goes on-line on Monday, August 4th, 1997 and becomes self aware at 2:14 a.m. August 29th, 1997.  For the original Terminator film, those events were 13 years into the future.

Another favorite of mine, Escape From New York, also featured the then far flung future of 1997.  The movie was released in 1981, which meant the events within were some 16 years into the future.

On TV, there was Space: 1999, wherein the Moon is shot out of its orbit and the inhabitants of the Moon's solitary base experience adventures a la Star Trek.  That show appeared on TV between 1975 and 1977, which meant the future it speculated about was some 22-24 years away.

So, to add to all these imagined futures that we've reached, one can add the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two.  The book was released in 1982 and the movie (renamed/simplified to 2010) a couple of years later.  The future Mr. Clarke envisioned this time around was 28 years in the future, but its here today!

Continuing the best/worst of the year/decade, here's an amusing list of what Time Magazine's James Poniewozik feels are the worst TV shows the past year.

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/12/21/vacation-robo-post-the-10-worst-tv-shows-of-2009/

I have to whole heartedly agree regarding Osbornes: Reloaded.  Caught just a couple of minutes of that "comedy" show and was shocked at how incredibly awful it was.  I enjoyed (at least initially) the MTV Osbornes reality show.  It was startling and original and voyeuristic (in a good way, though! ).  This "variety" show was neither, a great waste of time and incredibly unamusing.

When last I talked about the subject, I was done with the show.  Finished.  I had an episode (I believe it was Belonging, the fourth episode of the second season and one that received plenty of positive reaction) to watch, I read plenty of good things about it from those who had advanced previews of the show, but upon watching the first few minutes, I just couldn't get into it.

I had enough.

A few weeks pass, and Dollhouse goes on its hiatus, is officially canceled, and my mind is cleansed of the whole affair.  Then, last week, I'm away from town, sitting in a hotel, with nothing better to do and no book to read, so I turn the TV on and catch the concluding minutes of Meet Jane Doe (Episode 7).  Not too bad.  Now Fox is burning through the episodes, eager to play them out and be done with the show once and for all, so they're playing two hour blocks of Dollhouse.

What immediately follows is A Love Supreme, the return of arch-villain "Alpha" to the proceedings.  And I'll be damned if it wasn't pretty freaking great.

So this week, Friday, they air Stop Loss and The Attic, episodes 9 and 10 one after the other, and, if I may, let me say they were GREAT.

THIS IS WHAT DOLLHOUSE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING!

The "bad" episodes featured weak and murky characterizations, erratic pacing, little suspense, and weak plots.

The last three episodes had GREAT characterization, GREAT suspense, and, finally, a comprehensible and exciting story to match!

Yeah, yeah.  We're at the end of the road here, I know.  There are only three more episodes of the show left to go and then she's done for.

However, to anyone out there that may still have even a little interest in the show, it's worth watching again.

And regarding my earlier critiques of the show: I still stand by them.  Dollhouse may be running great episodes now, but the fact is that until these last episodes it was erratic at best.  However, I'm happy to see it heading to the finish line with a real, perceivable, and delightful head of steam.

I sincerely can't wait to see this through its end!

Fascinating list from Newsweek, predicting what might happen in the coming year, entertainment/cultural-wise:

http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/cultural-predictions/someone-dies-on-reality-tv.html

Some of their predictions are pretty good (like the first one, which you can see in the link's "name" already).  Some I'm not so sure about...

Still, worth a look!

CNN gives you a list of some CD and DVD box sets worth a look or listen:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/18/cd.dvd.boxed.sets/index.html

Interesting article regarding a lawsuit brought against DirecTV, alleging they engage in deceptive practices:

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/12/a-lawsuit-filed-this-week-by-washington-state-against-directv-could-have-a-secondary-purpose-it-could-serve-as-a-textbook-fo.html

As with anything you get into, buyer beware.  Read all the small text and make sure you understand just what it is you're getting into.

Some of the things noted in this article as being underhanded, I believe, are also being done by other cable companies.  That doesn't make the practices right, mind you, but one hopes all companies are eventually held responsible for their less savory practices.

Almost hallucinogenic, flipping between The Devil's Rejects on IFC (never saw it before...don't think I will again) and the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, last year's SuperBowl champions and a team many (including myself) thought would be a serious contender for the title this year, losing for the second week in a row to a very, very poor (at least record-wise) team, this time the Cleveland Browns.  Now, before you assume I'm a fan of the Steelers...I'm not.  In fact, them losing helps my team.  However, it was astonishing to see them go down in the frigid temps of Cleveland.  Ouch.

As for The Devil's Rejects, one must commend director Rob Zombie for making something that looked like it came from another time, specifically the grindhouse era of the 1970's.  But the film is pretty downbeat, and its tough to eventually "root" for the crazed killers that are the subject of this film.  Essentially, the first half of the film these trio are the butchers.  In the second (far better) half of the film, they become the victims and the audience is put in the uncomfortable position of...maybe...rooting for them to somehow survive.  However, after that first half, I couldn't help but hope that the trio gets much, much more than they deserve and, alas, a deus ex machina comes into play that, at least to me, dissolves the whole thing.

However, the very last sequence made up for that.  At least Mr. Zombie seemed to know where and how this film should end.

A disturbing experience, though, and certainly not for everyone (as if that isn't obvious by now)!

Sometimes, articles like this show up and everything in life is so much clearer...

http://www.slate.com/id/2237378/

I've been curious about this show since its beginning.  I am, after all, a fan of comic books and the whole superhero thing, so watching Heroes was a no-brainer, right?

Not quite.

I bought the first season on DVD pretty much the day it was released.  I hadn't seen a single episode but the buzz for the show's first season ("Save the cheerleader, save the world") was loud and good, so I figured I couldn't lose.  Alas, I found that first season, the best reviewed season, only mildly interesting.  I've mentioned it before, but I thought the ending in particular was a huge let down.  It appeared the season was going to go for a big blow out at the end, and that many of the "heroes" we knew and loved (and one in particular we most certainly didn't!) would die saving the world.

Only the people behind the scenes seemed to lose their courage, and the season 1 finale featured an ending that was far from final.  In fact, everyone lived to fight another day, and I truly lost interest in following the series.  When the second season started and progressed, there were many complaints from fans and critics, and season three didn't seem to do all that much to revive the show.  Now in its fourth season, it appears that many in the show's staff know the end is near:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b156121_this_just_in_heroes_expected_end_ugly.html

Let me start by repeating what I've said a few times before: Of all the TV series out there, my all time favorite is probably the Patrick McGoohan The Prisoner (1967).  While the show is certainly "of its time", it presents an absolutely fascinating, and original, premise: A secret agent (or someone in a very high, very sensitive office) angrily resigns from his job.  His future plans appear to be to fly off to an island, perhaps as a vacation, perhaps as a way to leave civilization.  However, as he's packing, knockout gas is shot through the keyhole of his front door.  He awakens on a bizarre island where the inhabitants live in the blandly titled "Village" and each inhabitant has a number rather than a name.  In the course of the show's 17 episodes, McGoohan, rechristened number "6", fights the powers of the island, in the form of the ever changing number "2" (the face of control in the island), determined to alternately escape and discover who is number "1".

As much as I love the show, however, I'd be lying if I said all 17 episodes were great.  There are a couple here and there that simply aren't, and the big finale, "Fallout", the episode that should have wrapped up everything and, we imagined, provided us with the answers to all the questions we've asked (like who exactly is #1, where is the island, etc. etc.), wound up being an almost incomprehensible disappointment.

But even with these problems, all the remaining episodes, at least 90% of them, were stunning, thought provoking, and incredibly entertaining.  And I would recommend anyone interested pick up the series, particularly now that its available in HD on Blu Ray (the images are beautiful!).

Which brings us, inevitably, to the new, 2009 Prisoner mini-series.  Given my love of the original series, it was obvious I'd eventually watch the new mini-series.  But I entered this new show with considerable trepidation.  The critics, almost all of them, were most unkind about this new series, stating that it was alternately boring or undecipherable.  They praised Ian McKellen as number 2, but lambasted James Caviezel as the protagonist, our number 6.  The only other praise was devoted to the show's setting, a beautiful and eerie town in the middle of an equally beautiful and eerie desert.

So, thanks to DVR, I finally watched the show all the way through, and while I can't fault the critics, I can't entirely side with them either.

The new Prisoner show, to me, was an attempt to create something big, something intellectual, something interesting...but it simply fell apart by the resolution.  Unlike the original Prisoner, the finale here mattered, and it was what the show was building up to.  Paradoxically, the original Prisoner can be enjoyed for its individual episodes while ignoring its finale.

This new series presents situations and scenes that never really pay off in the end.  Perhaps the best example of this is that the show begins with a clear reference to the original series and the original number 6:  Our protagonist, James Caviezel, awakens in the desert outside the village.  He sees an elderly man on the run from a group of thugs with dogs.  He rescues this old man, who is dressed in our old number 6's garb.  The old man dies, and James Caviezel buries him.  Subsequently, he reaches the Village and finds that the powers that be are eager to find the old man, and that may be why they're interested in Caviezel's number 6.  However, the time elapses and suddenly the old man is no longer of interest to anyone, and his grave is shown toward the end of the series but without giving us any idea why he was important (or caring why he was important) in the first place.

Further, while the original show presented us with recognizable elements from the start (a possible high level spy trying to outwit his captors) this show presents a far murkier set of circumstances for our protagonist.  He works for a sinister company that is willing to assassinate people and kidnap people's daughters because it is engaged in some kind of mind experiments devoted to...helping people?!  I just don't know, and the idea is so complicated, versus the elegance of the original show, that I don't care.  Indeed, given so many disparate ideas from the original, I can't help but wonder if, perhaps, the new Prisoner story was something else that the writer did, and in the end he shoehorned his ideas into this remake of the old series.

And I wonder, if that is the case, if this show might have been better off as something original, rather than a "re-imaging" of the old series.

Fascinating article by Bob Sullivan:

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/12/laptop-computers-examined-by-border-guards-looking-for-pirated-software-ipods-seized-at-airport-security-lines-on-mere-suspi.html

On the one hand, I can understand the need to do something about copyright piracy.  The fact is that right now, to many there is no reason at all to bother legally buying any music, and movie piracy is certainly on the rise.  The amount of money both music and movie companies lose as a result of this is astronomical and, worse, may lead to less investment in future products and, thus, less for consumers to enjoy.  I think I've said this before: Imagine if a new band with the potential to be, as the cliche goes, the "next" Beatles comes around, but because their initial album sells poorly, perhaps in part because of illegal downloading, the company supporting them decides to release them.

Similarly, why would a movie company invest millions of dollars into a film when profits diminish because people can illegally download the film often on the very day it is released into theaters?  Worse, some films (Wolverine or the Ang Lee Hulk film) found their way online even before their official release!

HOWEVER, having said all that, some of the proposals being floated in the article linked above are, frankly, scary.  I worry when agencies that are not in law enforcement are granted law enforcement privileges.  While I doubt that there will be a "laptop and iPod" check at the borders (there are simply too many people with said items traveling each day), some of the other possibilities are no less chilling.

Then again, one is reminded of the myth of Pandora's Box.  Once opened, its so very hard to close it again...

Often while watching the History Channel and/or assorted history specials, I wonder how much the producers of the show (and, indeed, the scientists and historians) have right versus how much is guesswork and speculation.  History, without clear written/recorded accounts (preferably from multiple sources), can be dodgy.

Which is why this clip is so amusing.  It imagines what a documentary about the Beatles might be like 1000 years in the future, provided many of the historical notes were lost in the mists of time...

Fascinating look at some well known celebrities...and their original names:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/27/celebrities-who-changed-t_n_368097.html

My favorite celebrity changed name, and it is not included on this particular list, has to be Archibald Alexander Leach.

I have never seen a full episode of Smallville.  This is not a knock on the show...I've a) never had the time to sit down and watch a full episode and b) when I have caught a few minutes of it here and there, what I saw was OK but not good enough to get me watching much more than I have.

That being said, I'm curious about the Justice Society-centric upcoming movie/episode.  These photos, provided by Entertainment Weekly, give us a good glimpse of Hawkman, Dr. Fate, and Stargirl (Green Arrow has appeared previously).

For a TV show, it doesn't look bad at all!

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/11/27/smallville-doctor-fate-stargirl-hawkman/

I've mentioned it before (here) that the 3rd season Blu Ray release of the original Star Trek series (in stores mid-December) will feature an alternative version of the second Star Trek pilot (the one that featured the first appearance of William Shatner's Captain Kirk).  The alternative version's most intriguing element appears to be the alternate opening, which does not feature the now familiar "Space...the final frontier" monologue from Mr. Shatner.

Entertainment Weekly offers some information and a clip of this opening, if you're curious:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/11/24/star-trek-alternate-opening/

The full opening was presented in my previous posting along with some of the other differences between the never officially released early version of the pilot (however, the quality of the video isn't nearly as good as what EW gives).  I'll embed it below:

Enjoyable one and all, although if there is one minor point worth making its that the show seems to be comfortable in...uh...appropriating comic book concepts.

Episode 6, Earthling, featured a "shadow" monster that was pretty much a rip off of the Negative Man from the comic book series The Doom Patrol.  In the comic book, the character was good, in the Fringe, he was quite bad.

Episode 8, August, featured a more in depth look at the so-called Observers, a group of bald men who seem to be...observing...what's happening around the world and at key historical events.  Kinda like...no, almost exactly like Marvel comic's Watcher character originally introduced in the Fantastic Four, with a little of DC Comic's Metron (another Jack Kirby creation) thrown into the mix.

But, lest I sound too down on the people behind the show, it remains enjoyable.

One of the very earliest childhood memories I have is of the TV show UFO.  Specifically, two thing: 1) An alien with an environmental suit gets his mask cracked, and rather than air a dark liquid flows out of it, sending the alien running into the woods, holding the mask (if this memory is from another show, then forgive me for the mix up...but I think this was from it).  2) I also recall Ed Bishop as the stoic, almost bizarre Cmd. Ed Straker.  I specifically recalled his almost new wave look and strange blond hair (Being so young when I saw the show first, I had no idea about things like...wigs).

I have the first DVD set of the show and have managed to work my way through most of it and other, hazy recollections come back now and again.  The odd headquarters buried under a movie studio, the moon base (later reworked into Space: 1999).  The show was fun and weird, a great combination, even though I'd be the first it also shows its age (the original series debuted in 1970 and took place in the far flung future of...1980).

Now, Joshua Jackson of Fringe is on board a movie remake of the show.  I'm curious:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/22/joshua-jackson-sticking-with-the-supernatural-starring-in-adaptation-of-british-tv-series-ufo/

Quick note: I haven't given up on FlashForward.

But I'm getting close.

Irritating plot point #1:  Exactly how much longer will Dylan Simcoe be kept in the hospital?  He was brought in immediately after the flashforward (waaay back in episode 1 of the series) and has, since at least the second or third episode, looked like he was fine.  Yet, according to the show's time line, 2 months have passed and yet he remains there.  Compare this to FBI agent Janis Hawk, who was shot, in critical condition, had to go through 2 operations, and yet was treated and released from the hospital in a matter of two episodes and, to add insult to injury, is back on the job!

And yet little autistic Dylan remains imprisoned.  Seriously, what comes next?  Does the hospital seek an eviction notice to rid themselves of the child or does his father, the sinister (?) Lloyd Simcoe, finally call the cops and reports the hospital has effectively kidnapped his son?

Irritating plot point #2:  This one directly relates to episode 8.  The episode ends with our hero, Mark Benford, apparently murdering someone he fears may be involved in coming after him in the flashforward time.  The reason?  The murder victim has a tattoo on his arm of three stars, which Benford's future assaulter also has.  Only too obvious question: What if he's not the only one carrying said tattoo on his arm?  Sure enough, the episode concludes with a military group who all have the same tattoos on their arms.  Way to think that one through, Agent Benford.

I'm thinking more and more that this is a show that should have been a limited mini-series.  As such, the producers/writers could have focused on delivering a tight product with a solid beginning, middle, and end.  The initial premise remains strong, but the episodes that have followed have meandered and it feels the writers are killing time and/or losing their way.

But who am I to critique too strongly...I'm still watching the show, after all.

Seriously, they hit the nail on the head here:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/222503

Just about every individual mentioned in this list may have had their humorous moments now and again, but their overall, continued draw after many years has me scratching my head.

I have yet to read a positive review of AMC's new Prisoner mini-series.  Here's USA Today's Robert Bianco's take:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2009-11-12-prisoner13_ST_N.htm

While I was somewhat optimistic at one point that I could find something to like in the show (it is The Prisoner, after all...a remake of my favorite TV show...they had such a great template to follow...what could go wrong?!), it appears that as more and more critics offer their opinions, the less I'm looking forward to the mini-series.

Looks like its shaping up to be a big missed opportunity.

Not the most surprising news to hit the waves, but there you have it: Dollhouse is finished.  Fox will air the last few episodes and its done:

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/11/11/this-just-in-dollhouse-axed/

Of all the shows I've watched recently, Dollhouse is probably the one I've given the most number of chances.  The first season began pretty badly, got a little better somewhere midway through, only to slip again toward the end.  Season 2 began OK, but then, for me, it slipped.  I heard the last aired episode was one of the best of the lot but I couldn't get past the first segment and wound up deleting it from my DVR and finally giving up on the show for good.

Oh well...I was truly hoping for something to intrigue and entertain me, but it just didn't work out.  Here's hoping the next Joss Whedon project is worth following.

I'm noted before that Salon.com TV critic Heather Havrilesky is a favorite of mine.  Here, she delves into AMC's upcoming The Prisoner mini-series:

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/the_prisoner/index.html?story=/ent/tv/iltw/2009/11/10/the_prisoner

I have also noted before my love of the original Prisoner TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.  Sadly, the reviews I've stumbled upon regarding this new version of that show have almost all panned it.  Here is Ken Tucker's review of the show for Entertainment Weekly.  He gives this new Prisoner a "C":

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20317240,00.html

Oh well.  If you do catch this show and it does prove disappointing (or even if it proves good), may I recommend you nonetheless check out the original series?  It's worth your while.

Ah Blu-Ray.  Gotta love the good transfers (as opposed to the lesser quality ones out there...read up and check!).  But there remain many films unavailable, at least until now, on Blu-Ray.  dvdfile.com presents their list of top 10 animated films they would like to see on Blu:

http://www.dvdfile.com/views/article/blu-ray-wishlist-the-ten-most-wanted-animated-films-89337

Frankly, I was expecting many, many Disney films listed, but the folks at dvdfile offered a fairly diverse list of films/tv shows/what-have-you.  Some, though, I wonder if they would truly be worth the Blu-Ray treatment.  I mean, nothing against South Park, but the animation is purposely crude...would it really be worth seeing it in a crystal clear format?  Same goes, at least for me, with The Simpsons (of course, there's a whole other issue for me regarding that show.  I used to love the hell out of it, but somewhere down the line...perhaps season 6 or 7, I grew tired of it.  I bought the DVDs as they came out, up to roughly that time, but have yet to watch any of them.)

On the other hand, Futurama would be interesting to see in HD, if only for the wild backgrounds (the characters are on the level of The Simpsons).

But missing from their list, inexplicably and bafflingly, are any of the wonderful Warner Brothers short collections.  Come on!  Wouldn't you love to see Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote & the Roadrunner, et al in HD?  Wouldn't it be incredible to see the works of animation giants such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, etc. etc. etc. in full high definition?!

How could they forget them?!

It's a sure sign that a show is starting to lose it with me when I take longer and longer to get to it on the DVR.

But, to be fair, episodes 5 & 6 of FlashForward ("Gimme Some Truth" and the obviously David Bowie title inspired "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps") weren't all that bad.

They weren't all that exceptional, either.

"Gimme Some Truth" had our leads go to Washington to face a committee and, essentially, justify their salaries and/or budget.  They faced a harsh Senator who saw herself as President in her FlashForward and who has some "history", none of it nice, with Agent Wedeck, the boss of the FBI division in L.A.  By the end of that episode, she's one step closer to her future, and while the agency has its funds to continue their research into the cause of the FlashForward, they've also made some powerful enemies, not least of which is the actual, current President of the United States.  The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as simultaneous attacks are made on the FBI group, both in Washington D.C. (where the bulk of the FBI agents are) and in L.A., where Agent Hawk is ambushed and shot.

"Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" takes up where the previous episode left off, with Agent Hawk clinging to life and coming out of her operation possibly unable to fulfill her FlashForward.  This proved, at least to me, the most irritating aspect of this episode.  The rest of the episode had the Benford's visited by the man who may cause their marriage to disintegrate (and who, secretly, is apparently part of the group that caused the FlashForward event), and the prolonged appearance of Dominic Monaghan's Simon, the other member of the group that set off the event.

Now, the two episodes flowed well enough and they certainly were better than episode 4.  I'm still sticking around with it, but I hope they start ramping up the story and direction a little better.  It would also help if they don't present very famous songs re-worked by lesser talents (Not only did we have a...uh...new version of "Scary Monsters", but also "Across the Universe".  Neither was all that good).

I also tried to see last week's Dollhouse, but...I don't know.  I just can't take the show anymore.  After five minutes I shut it down.  At this point in time, I don't think I'm coming back.

Yeah, like I never said that before...

The show's had its ups and downs (I feel that the first half of season 1 remains its best hours) and ridiculous moments (LA being nuked, yet no one seemingly reacting; terrorists somehow swimming under and into the White House), but damn if the sight of Kiefer Sutherland locking horns with terrorists doesn't get my blood pumping.

If there is one thing I hope, though, is that they offer some kind of resolution to the whole Tony Almeida situation.  It was fun seeing him again last season, but they left his status too "up in the air".  Hope he makes a return and redemption...

I've read a few reviews (including those you can find on the Amazon.com listing of the movie), and I've been curious if the differences between the regular DVD release and this new Blu-Ray made upgrading worth your while.  Some have said, enthusiastically, yes.

This review, however, is a little more tempered:

http://www.dvdfile.com/reviews/review/the-prisoner-the-complete-series-bd-88961

I'll likely get the upgrade, as it appears this is the best you're going to get for now (and The Prisoner remains my all time favorite TV show).  But some of the negatives presented in this review are troubling.

Ah well...

From Entertainment Weekly comes this list...I can honestly say I didn't see even a single one of the episodes of any of these shows from start (though a caught a minute or two here and there...how can you miss The Jerry Springer Show?  Even when they show clips of it on other shows).  I also completely forgot about several of these shows.

Probably on purpose:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20314781,00.html

The early reviews for this 6 part special made it sound like a can't miss, so going into it I was expecting wonderful things.  That's usually a problem.

I think the best way to come into something, whether a book or TV show or work of any kind is neutrally, ie with no expectations at all.  That way, the good stuff sometimes comes as a pleasant surprise and the bad stuff sometimes doesn't irritate you quite as much.

So, the show was a good retrospective on Monty Python, and featured the remaining lads recollecting their heydays (and, in the last episode, what they're now doing).

The six part show is well researched and linear in presentation.  Episode 1 features their education/first brushes with show business and lead to the beginning of the original Monty Python TV show.  Episodes 2 and 3 focused on the TV show (and explained why John Cleese was not involved with the show's final episodes).  The remaining episodes focused on the three films (episode 4 had Holy Grail, episode 5 Life of Brian, episode 6 Meaning of Life and original member Graham Chapman's passing plus what the remaining members are up to now).

When the Python members were on, it was delightful and more than a little sad.  These folks have become awfully old.  Each and every one of them were pleasant and talkative, dishing inside information about the way they butted heads, but no terribly dark secrets were revealed nor any long time simmering hatreds were exposed, which is just as well.  When they weren't featured, the special veered wildly.  Seeing contemporaneous friends/acquaintances give their memories of certain incidents could be illuminating.  Seeing modern artists talk about how much Monty Python influenced them...not so much.

The show's theme song (different each episode) was pretty funny, the guy acting as a lawyer during those opening credits was beyond annoying.

In the end, if you're a fan of Monty Python, you'll enjoy the show (it is available on DVD).  If you're not, you may find the material presented rather dry.

Doesn't really matter, you can always go back to the movies or the TV shows.  That's where the gold really is.

In general, I love her articles.  Here, she takes on almost all the new TV shows this season:

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/modern_family/index.html?story=/ent/tv/iltw/2009/10/21/best_new_tv_mid_fall_checkup

Her review of FlashForward, sadly, is dead on, especially her comments regarding the "characters".  I enjoyed the show's pilot and the first few episodes but felt the last one was weak, like one of the writers had a rejected House script hanging around and reworked it to fit in this show.  I hope the show makes an improvement, but given the fact that it seems to be moving downhill rather than up, the signs are not necessarily good.

And it appears others have similar opinions:

http://www.slate.com/id/2232557/

I suppose this qualifies as not all that surprising news, Dollhouse will be "benched" during the November sweeps, to return in December:

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/10/21/exclusive-fox-to-bench-dollhouse-for-sweeps/

I've written entirely too much regarding this show, and haven't found the time to watch the last episode they aired (I caught a few minutes, but shut the DVR down to watch something else).

To give Mr. Whedon credit, the show is indeed original.  Sadly, it also remains muddled and confusing, out of focus and, at times, just too frustrating.  I like everyone involved in it, from the actors to the creative staff behind the scenes.  But the show just isn't working for me, and its no wonder it may be on its last legs.

Still, I really love this promo graphic.  Really wish the show was something else...

Only found the one article (at least so far), but Joseph Wiseman, best known as James Bond's first movie villain, Dr. No (in the 1962 movie of the same name), has died:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/joseph-wiseman-dies-dr-no_n_328281.html

That role was probably the one he will be best known for, although his IMDB page lists plenty of other screen (and TV credits).

I personally loved him in the movie.  He was sinister, quiet, and deadly.  In many ways, his character in that film proved the template for the many villains who followed.

R.I.P., Mr. Wiseman

A while back Entertainment Weekly had a list of their top 25 cult TV shows (I made a posting about it here while the actual EW list can be found here).  I agreed with many of their choices, but felt that they omitted some very big, and to me obvious choices while tending to skew toward more recent shows.

The biggest omission, I felt, was Star Trek.  It would appear others agreed:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20311716,00.html

They also list Dark Shadows (a show I was never a big fan of but felt should have been on the list, especially now that vampires seem so hip).  But missing from their shows is The Wild Wild West.  Curiously, on this new list is Adventures of Brisco County Jr., a show I like (and I really love Bruce Campbell).  However, as enjoyable as it was, Brisco County was also a pretty obvious tongue in cheek echo of The Wild Wild West.

Oh well.

I've read about this before, this is the first article I could find that featured a little more of a description of what the alternate/extended version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second pilot of the original Star Trek (and the first to feature William Shatner's Captain Kirk), as well as some compiled clips (via YouTube) of what we're in for:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42760

Cool stuff, an interesting alternative opening.  I can't help myself...here it is:

Finally got around to seeing the latest episode of Fringe.  It was a decent episode, although it made me realize just how far the show has moved from its initial season.

You remember back then?

The pilot episode introduced us to Anna Torv's Agent Dunham, a lady with some issues, both with her FBI lover (a co-worker and a big "no no" in the agency).  He subsequently died and Dunham acquired fragments of his memories in her head and realized he had quite an investigation going into finding a mysterious super-scientist group who conduct at times grotesque experiments in plain view and with subsequent high body counts (one of the most memorable sequences in the pilot episode was the fate of the passengers in an airliner).  Agent Broyles, a mysterious government man offered to hire Dunham, as he too was looking into these super-scientests, but wondered about a sexual discrimination suit she filed against a friend of his.  The subject of the sexual discrimination suit would subsequently appear and make Dunham's job/life hell, and Dunham's sister and her young daughter showed up one day to come live at her place and hide from the sister's abusive ex-husband who was preparing some kind of lawsuit to gain control of the kid...

Remember all that?

No?

That's because many of these story elements seem to have been either jettisoned or forgotten as time moved on.  Super-scientists?  Nah, we'll go with an alternate Earth and the people from there trying to move over here (and destroy our Earth in the process).  The sister and her daughter are AWOL.  The discrimination suit and the man it was brought against was revealed to have his own murky dealings which may or may not be related to either the super-scientists or the alternate dimension beings.  Then again, maybe not.   Makes little difference: He's dead now.

Anyway, I only point all the above out because given how much change this show has gone through since its inception, its amazing it remains a decent watch.  But much of that may be due to the show's X-Files elements rather than anything new or original it brought to the table.

And that, in essence is what keeps me from being totally into the show.  While I enjoy it and watch it, like FlashForward and its thematic devotion to emulating Lost, I find the similarities between Fringe and X-Files at times rather uncomfortable.

Then again, at least the show has something to grasp.  Dollhouse, a far more original TV show concept, remains a perplexing mess, and the questions the show raises outweighs the enjoyment one takes.  Why does the Dollhouse exist?  How can they make money when no one is supposed to know about them?  Yet if no one knows about them, how do clients find them?  Do they market themselves through some kind of secret means?  And for what purpose?  What do they hope to gain?  What do the people who submit themselves to being dolls hope to gain?  Why go through with it?

While Fringe appears to have simplified itself and accepted the X-Files theme, Dollhouse remains a frustrating curio.

It was bound to happen, I suppose: the first really not-very-good episode of the series.

It begins outright bizarre, with odd music and odder scenery involving a bus accident during the blackout.  It continues very oddly with Agent Benford and his daughter making eggs and overacting.  But then things slow down and the familiar takes over (for the better) until the plot makes a blatant deviation into House territory.

It's bad enough that the producers have basically photocopied Lost's structure while building their show (something I've noted before but was willing to overlook while, hopefully, they move their own way), but to feature a story involving a medical mystery?  For shame.

What's next?  A crime scene analysis/murder mystery?  A medium?  Hijinks at a New York TV studio and/or paper product office?

But I will give them plenty of credit for coming back to the whole "Benford goes to Germany on the company dime" element I joked about in my last review.  When he tries to convince his boss to let him go to Somalia, the boss slaps the request down.  I suppose he'll think twice before asking for those seats to the Superbowl (because, you know, the word "Superbowl" were written on his Mosaic wall ).

Beginning this Sunday the 18th, IFC will present Monty Python: Almost the Truth (the Lawyer's Cut).  It is a six part series that will air each night through Friday and early reviews suggest its quite fun:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33307910/ns/entertainment-television/

I'm a fan of Monty Python, particularly the hilarious The Life of Brian.  While many consider Monty Python and the Holy Grail the best, I think this movie (which, let me be very clear, is hilarious in its own right) nonetheless pales compared to Brian.

...And that ending.  Hilarious, sobering, thought provoking, and sad.  All at the same time.  Truly a work of (twisted) genius.

Can't say I disagree with any of their choices.  Each and every one of the episodes listed is a keeper:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1927690_1927684,00.html

Ok, how long before the protagonist, Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) begins telling his bosses that on the collage-filled board within his flashforward he saw, say, the next Superbowl listed?  Or a listing for Paris, France?  London?  A cruise to Alaska?

I mention this because the episode had Agent Benford worming a trip to Germany to look into what an old Nazi commander saw during his flashforward, and it being something that is important enough to allow the man to get his freedom.

Unfortunately, the old Nazi is never played creepily enough for the audience to think "damn, how can they even think of letting that bastard go?!"  They tried to have a fellow agent look sullen at Agent Benford's consideration of exchanging information for freedom, and they had the head of the German prison go ballistic at the thought that he would be freed...but the whole thing didn't quite work like the producers no doubt wanted it to.

However, in spite of these problems, the show remains intriguing enough, at least to me, to keep watching.  The revelation at the tail end of the episode, in particular, was good, even if it still doesn't quite hit the heights of wonder the episodes of Lost managed with apparent ease (yes, I know I know, I've mentioned, and I think its pretty clear by now, that this show wants to be another Lost.  Nothing wrong with that, I guess, as long as they don't cross the line from homage to rip off).

So, I'll keep watching.  We're only three episodes in and the show has the potential to keep me through the end of the season.

Just to put this up front: I've never seen an episode of NBC's Southland.  Nor, if I were perfectly honest here, have I felt the urge to do so.  That's not to say the show is bad or anything, its just that I have so many hours in the day and another cop drama didn't intrigue me.

But what did intrigue me was the fact that after a so-so rated first season, NBC went ahead and renewed the show for a second season.  The show was in production for this second season and not a single episode of it aired when...NBC decided to cancel it.

That's right: They renewed it for a second season and put forward the cash to start production on that second season yet went ahead and canceled the show before it aired even one of those second season episodes.

I suppose its a case of buyer's remorse.

Interested in hearing more thoughts on this somewhat bizarre situation?  Click on the link below for Time Magazine's James Poniewozik's thoughts on the subject:

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/10/09/nbc-takes-southlands-badge-whats-next/#more-6605

Before I get into it, here's a positive review of last night's episode of Fringe.  Please note, though, that Entertainment Weekly TV critic Ken Tucker goes very heavily into SPOILER territory:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/10/09/fringe-leonard-nimoy-william-bell/

One of the stranger experiences, when watching a movie or reading a book or listening to an album, is to enjoy the experience while watching/listening/reading the material, but afterwards, when all is said and done, you look back at what you saw/heard/read and realize that it wasn't as good as you originally thought, after all.

I've noted before that I'm not a big fan of the original Star Wars films, despite the fact that I was of the right age at the right time when they were originally released.  I was so unimpressed with the original Star Wars (1977) that I didn't bother seeing its sequel in the theaters.  The first time I saw Empire Strikes Back, it was when they aired it on TV.  However, I did see Return of the Jedi in theaters, and thought the experience was very exciting (the hover cycles in the forest, the effects extravagant finale).  Afterwards, however, when I thought some more of what I just saw, I realized the film had some major issues.  For one, Harrison Ford appeared remarkably bored throughout the film.  For another, those damn Ewoks...

Which, in a way, brings me back to last night's Fringe.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

As the episode rolled along, I generally enjoyed it.  There were two major plots going on: One involved Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) finally recalling what exactly happened to her on the alternate dimension when she faced Dr. Bell (Leonard Nimoy), while the other involved Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) meeting the now grown woman he experimented on years before and who could see the people from the other dimension (she was played by Theresa Russell).

I've been hoping the show would get to this point for a few weeks now, but in the end, the "revelations" by Dr. Bell weren't all that new or intriguing (we kinda/sorta knew that the people from the other dimension were trying to get over here, right?  And we knew this would release all kinds of hell, right?).  Worse, Anna Torv's acting during her confrontation with Leonard Nimoy's Dr. Bell didn't have the angry bite I think the show's makers were hoping for (I like Anna Torv.  I think she's a pretty good actress...but she just didn't pull this very important sequence off.  Just my opinion!).

Worse, the secondary plot involving Theresa Russell also didn't yield much.  Russell's character realized that Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), was from that parallel universe.  It was something we already knew.

But the thing that wound up irking me the most about the show were the closing scenes.  Agent Dunham speaks to Nina Sharp at Massive Dynamics.  While there, she receives a text message from the (unknown to her) compromised and substituted Agent Francis.  He tells her Nina Sharp is an agent from the parallel universe.  So Agent Dunham leaves Massive Dynamics and tells her friend and co-worker where the cryogenicaly stored head (don't ask) the parallel universe agents are looking for is, and just as she tells him this, she receives confirmation via her phone that it is Agent Francis who is not human anymore.

The whole sequence was, putting it as kindly as possible, clumsy.  It also smacked of writers trying to wring as much emotion/suspense as possible, but doing it in a way that just didn't seem "real".

I mean, come on, Agent Dunham blurts out the information the parallel universe agents are literally dying to get, and not even one second later she realizes the man she's told this information to is the one person she shouldn't have?

In sum, I was disappointed.

Unlike Ken Tucker.

Then again, your opinions may be more in line with his...

An interesting list of television shows once very popular, but whose appeal is being tested...

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20309907,00.html

Most of the shows listed I don't watch, but even those I do...well, some comments have their merits.

Fascinating article focusing on aspiring TV series that lasted a whole one episode before being yanked:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/08/tv.one.hit.wonders/index.html

Most of them are unfamiliar to me (little wonder: they aired, as stated, once before being banished from their respective networks).

However, the one I do recall is You're In The Picture, the first entry.  I've never seen it, nor was able to find it on YouTube, but the descriptions of it I've read make it sound as bad as host Jackie Gleason thought it was, and subsequently apologized for.

When the news first broke, my immediate reaction was: How could David Letterman do this?  To get involved with staff, possibly with interns...

The National Organization of Women had a similar opinion:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/07/letterman.now/index.html

I think it makes sense if you're a boss in a company...any company...you should try to steer very clear of any sexual relationships (or the potential for any such relationships) with people working for you.  Especially if you're already in a relationship (as David Letterman was in a relationship, had a child, and eventually married).

While right now the public may be on Letterman's side for "coming clean", I wonder if there isn't any more dirt out there that might eventually tarnish him.

Intriguing article from AOL Television:

http://insidetv.aol.com/2009/09/30/is-nbc-dead?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl2|link3|http%3A%2F%2Finsidetv.aol.com%2F2009%2F09%2F30%2Fis-nbc-dead

NBC is having difficulties (to put it mildly) with their current programs, many of which are currently flailing.  The Jay Leno Show, after a positive first week, appears to be on a downward spiral.  It doesn't surprise me, although Jay Leno has done some very funny stand up, his Tonight Show was, at least to me, dull, filled with "safe" humor that was effective at that time slot but not terribly effective during prime time viewing.

Heroes is mentioned, and its noted how the ratings of that once very successful show are also on a steep downward slide.  Again, not terribly surprising: After hearing so much about how good the first season of the show was, on impulse I bought the first season DVD the week it was released.  What I saw was a decent enough show that chickened out when it reached the season's conclusion.  Clearly, we were meant to have some major characters die saving Earth.  Instead, we had an ending that wasn't an ending at all, and it irked me enough that I didn't bother seeing even one episode of the show from season 2 on (given some of the comments I've read about subsequent episodes, it appears I haven't missed all that much).

Anyway, some of the advice presented to NBC in the later half of the article is good.  However, in the end, what NBC needs are stronger, better shows.

That might do the trick!

At times, I obsess over things.  Roman Polanski (see immediately below).  Shutter Island.  Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles.

A while back I thought I delivered my last comments regarding Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.  Given the rather dismal ratings so far, I suspect this will indeed be the last season of this spectacularly flawed TV show.

Two episodes in, I'm pretty much in the same place I was at the end of the first season: scratching my head.  Do I like this show?  At times, yes.  There are bits and pieces here and there that border on genius, but the show's central concept remains so murky and elusive that its hard to root for, or care about, anyone involved.

Take Friday's episode, "Instinct" (or, if you want, you can see it, legally, here).  There's this absolutely great bit of dialogue early on in the episode that has a hilarious punchline involving, of all things, the musical ground Van Halen, but the episode itself...

Where to begin?  How about the fact that in the premiere episode of Season 2 of this show (you know, just last week's episode) the character of Paul Ballard (ex-Battlestar Galactica actor Tahmoh Penikett) agreed to be the main agent in charge of Echo (Eliza Dushku) during her missions because he cared about her, and could see what the agent in charge of her missed (and nearly got her killed) in that episode.

But this time around, Ballard seems to have been sleeping because he missed quite a bit of what Echo was doing and saying (even to her fellow doll!) all in the interests of giving us this week's weak plot.  Echo is imprinted to be a loving mother, but getting that maternal instinct wiped away proves difficult.

After seeing this episode, I felt like deleting the show from my DVR schedule.  It won't be around much longer, unless some really big audiences suddenly show up to see the show.  And it certainly won't be along much longer if more of these type plots show up.

On the other hand, that bit about Van Halen was pretty damn funny...

The show's second episode was, at least to me, entertaining enough to warrant a third look, although sometimes the show's producers/writers tend to hit you over the head a little too hard with plot points (in this case a pair of them: 1) the painfully obvious upcoming-within-the-episode fate of the deputy in Pigeon, Utah who didn't have a flash forward, and 2) when main character (and fragile ex-alcoholic) Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) tells his wife that they shouldn't keep anything from each other, did they have to hit the audience with a reminder that in his flash forward he was drinking, something he has yet to admit to his wife?!).

Still, as I said before, I've found the show entertaining enough to warrant continued looks.  And although I'm not as down on it as some of the people who have posted thoughts at the show's IMDB site, neither would I say the show has grabbed me as hard as, say, Lost did after its premiere episode (FlashForward, it should be noted, appears to be trying awfully hard to emulate Lost).

Still, the show's premise is intriguing enough to make me curious as to where the story will ultimately take us.

Remember a little while back when it was announced someone filmed ESPN reporter Erin Andrews while she was in her hotel room?  The perpetrator of this apparently used some sophisticated equipment to look through the peephole and fix the distorted images so that they could film her.

Well, the perpetrator of this has apparently been caught:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/03/illinois.andrews.arrest/index.html

Quite a while back I noted that Ken Tucker, TV critic for Entertainment Weekly, was being a little too impatient with Burn Notice and its subplot involving a cop (played by Moon Bloodgood) putting pressure on our protagonist (if you're curious, the link to that post is here).

I point this out because I can sympathize with Mr. Tucker, at least with regards to Fringe (no relation to my The Dark Fringe).

Three episodes into the second season, I'm finding myself impatient for the show to finally, finally move on.  I can appreciate a show that keeps matters regarding the central plot secret from the protagonists of the show and viewers.  However, I was already peeved with the whole "amnesia" idea.  It was presented, it seems, only to keep whatever our lead character saw in the alternate universe hidden a few episodes (Wouldn't it have been far more intriguing had Agent Dunham been revealed to NOT have amnesia and, as viewers, we found out she was purposely keeping whatever experiences she had in the alternate universe to herself?).

Now, with this episode, we're given another bit of mystery, the idea that (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) the bald man seen in so many episodes may be amassing information on Earth and its people with the goal of...what?  The man telling us this information, an ex-military officer "off the grid", used his own ex-soldiers as unwitting suicide bombers to stop this amassing of information (even though it occurs to me there must be millions of far more subtle and less carnage-filled ways to stop seemingly unarmed individuals from delivering a suitcase).

My patience with the show, alas, has been tested.  While I can't deny the show continues to be very well done, it's time for at least some resolution to the many mysteries already presented, not presentations of one more mystery on top of the others.

At least next week's episode previews suggest we might return to the events that occurred in the alternate universe.

Maybe then...

I've never been a particularly big fan of the various Stargate series (and, for that matter, original 1994 movie).

However, I was intrigued with early descriptions regarding the new Stargate Universe series, premiering tonight on SciFi...er...SyFy Network.  That and the fact that Robert Carlyle, a terrifically talented (and criminally underrated) actor is the show's lead.

Anyway, I found this review of the show in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/criticscorner/2009-10-01-critics-corner_N.htm

The author seems to like the two hour premiere episode but isn't quite as impressed with the regular one hour follow up episode.

We'll see.

If you haven't seen it, here's the teaser trailer.  I'm rather surprised how easily the makers of this show have...uh..."appropriated"...Star Trek's beaming idea...

On of the oddest bits of news I've read in a while:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/09/29/stephen-king-novella-the-colorado-kid-to-become-tv-series-called-haven/

I'm not a huge Stephen King fan.  In fact, I've read very few of his novels.  The Colorado Kid happens to be one of them.  I'm with the author of the article linked above.  The novel, which many consider pretty bad, is a story about an unsolved mystery that, in the end, isn't solved.  What's the point of that?

It features a couple of characters talking about this mystery but in the end we're left with the mystery as it was.

I suspect author Stephen King was experimenting when he wrote this book.  He was walking in the footsteps of Agatha Christie (or any other mystery writer) but for whatever reason felt that he should provide a story with no resolution (somewhere else, perhaps even in the notes after the slim novel, he pointed out that he had a resolution theory, but didn't include it in the book).  Regardless, the only feeling I had after reading The Colorado Kid was that it was a well written waste of time.

From the description of the show that's coming, it seems the producers simply wanted to use Stephen King's name on this project and had no intention of making a "faithful" (or even a passing) adaptation of the book.

As such, I once again wonder what's the point.

A fascinating mini-interview with Sara Paxton, one of the actors of The Beautiful Life, the first TV show canceled in this new season:

http://www.latina.com/blogs/vivo-por-tivo/exclusive-beautiful-life-star-sara-paxton-blasts-cw-over-shows-cancellation

Now, I never saw an episode of the show and know very little about Ms. Paxton (other than the fact that she is quite beautiful!), but I find the interview fascinating because it gives you a quick look at what happens "behind the curtain" of show business.

In particular I found this line, the last bit of the interview, interesting because it highlights the realities of being an actor...and the fact that many actors operate without a solid home base, moving to different cities in pursuit of jobs and, in Ms. Paxton's case, finding herself stranded:

We thought we were going to be here (in New York) until December. Literally we packed up our lives from Los Angeles to New York. I spent two months and thousands of dollars without a paycheck moving to NY. And now they just say, 'oh, peace, you’re done?' We all signed 6 month leases, and now we all have to figure out how to get out of our leases, and I have to figure out how to get all my furniture back. I don’t know what to do with this NY furniture. We’re kind of stranded.

Generally, I enjoy the so-called easter eggs the producers of DVD/Blu Ray movies love to hide within their films...at least to a degree.

If finding them becomes a little too tough, I'm outta there.

So, here is a list of how to get to all 12 easter eggs.  The review/easter egg map does not give you answers, but rather clues to finding the easter eggs on individual disks.

Too much work for me, but if you're interested...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews092409.html#egg

It still hurts that Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles is gone while the far more miss than hit Dollhouse is back.

Regardless, the opening episode of the second season was entertaining enough...

...but (you knew this was coming, right?), my quibbles with the show's overall theme and concept remain.  I just don't have a handle on what the Dollhouse itself is supposed to be.  I've said it before: It should be a sexual fantasy, a place with beautiful people who clients hire out for their various and odd sexual desires.  Instead, though, the show as originally presented in season 1 tried to present the idea that these "dolls" could be used for high tech thefts or infiltrating religious cults or joining musical bands (ugh) or being spies or kidnap experts...

The opening episode of season 2 tries to tie both elements together, with our "doll" becoming the wife of a known arms dealer while imprinted to think she's some super-duper-infiltration agent for the FBI.  For the most part, the episode works, but other ideas, like a senator who is targeting the company behind the Dollhouse, appears far less interesting.

I suppose I'll stick around for a bit longer (in for a penny, in for a pound), but given the ratings of the show, it appears this may be the last go around for it.

By the way, I absolutely love the graphic below, used to promote the new season.  Looks like something comic book great Jim Steranko might create:

As the TV season kicks in, there are more and more shows popping up here and there to watch.

Fringe featured its second episode, pretty much a standalone about missing people in a small town and the eventual discovery of who/what was behind it.  Not all that bad, but again no serious attempt to explain what Agent Dunham went through between seasons 1 and 2.  Perhaps more discouraging, at least to those who make the show, is that there was a serious drop in viewership between the first and second episode (according to this link, the drop was a 23%.  Bad, but not as bad as CSI, which had a drop of 44%!).  Though its far too early to say, either people are not thrilled with the show's new time slot (Thursdays) or perhaps they're tiring of it for some reason or another.  While I can't say I'm as huge of a fan of this show as, say, Lost, I hope the ratings decline is a temporary thing and the show continues...

FlashForward premiered on another channel an hour before Fringe's latest episode and I found the episode entertaining....but....did they have to essentially steal the plot blueprint of Lost's premiere episode so blatantly?!  If memory serves, Lost began in media res as well, with the Doctor waking up after the plane crashed, and surveying all the mind-blowing damage.  This show featured almost the same thing, with our lead (Joseph Fiennes) waking up to find incredible devastation on a freeway and beyond.

But, otherwise, an enjoyable start for the show, with some interesting potential story ideas regarding the future and (I'm assuming) the possibility of altering it.

A little earlier in the week we had the season 1 finale of Warehouse 13.  Like the other shows mentioned above, it isn't the most original thing on TV (its a cross between X-Files and the concluding scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with a generous portion of humor).  The last episode focused on the Warehouse's nemesis, a man named MacPherson, an ex-agent who wants the objects stored within the Warehouse released to the general public.  Alas, the items within the Warehouse are generally dangerous, featuring either too sophisticated science or outright magic.

The finale was, unfortunately, very open ended, a cliffhanger meant to make us curious as to what's to come (and worry about the fate of one of the lead characters).  I thought it was maybe a little too predictable on that basis...too many shows seem to engage in cliffhanger season enders, yet I can't complain too much.

I'll be there for season 2.

I've already noted (scroll down) my positive impression of the new Star Trek season 2 on Blu Ray.  For those still unsure as to whether they want to buy it, here is a far more in depth review complete with a much more detailed descriptions on what you'll find in the set:

http://www.dvdfile.com/reviews/review/star-trek-the-original-series-season-2-bd-85953

...looks great.  I've only watched a couple of episodes so far, The Doomsday Machine and the humorous A Piece of the Action, and they look sharp, and the new effects are a great improvement over what came before (for those who want to see the original effects, those are available to be seen, too).  By the way, clicking on the links above for those two episodes leads you to the IMDB page for the shows, and from there you have a link to see the entire episode (with the original effects).

Below is an interesting comparison of the original versus the "new" special effects:

Following one list with another, this time a list of the above mentioned "Top 10 Sci-Fi/Horror TV on DVD:

http://www.dvdfile.com/views/article/top-ten-sci-fihorror-tv-on-dvdbd-titles-85943

As with the list immediately below, not all that much for me to add, except that I would have probably put The Prisoner at #1.

Sure, there are other individual Star Trek films being released today as well, but what interests me are the second season of the original series (probably my favorite of the three seasons) and, of course, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

If you're not aware, new special effects were created for the original Star Trek series, and these effects have been, at least in my opinion, pretty good overall.  Though they could have been overwhelming, it appeared the people making the effects tried to improve while not overdoing it.  Below is a new special effect from "The Doomsday Machine", perhaps my all time favorite episode of the original series:

It's always amusing to revel in others' failures:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20305579,00.html

While looking at the list, a few random thoughts:

These Entertainment Weekly lists sure do seem to focus on recent items.  There exist a host of absolutely terrible TV shows made more than 10 years ago.  Trust me, I've seen plenty of them.

There was a second Fugitive TV series that followed the Harrison Ford movie?!

Commander In Chief, if memory serves, drew very big crowds...before suddenly going on hiatus, switching creative teams, and switching air times (the later items are mentioned, the former is not).  It seemed that was when the show failed.  I have never seen an episode of the show, but I distinctly recall the fact that it was successful, at least at first.

I couldn't agree more with their comments regarding the new Bionic Woman show.  While Michelle Ryan, the lead in this show, impressed me considerably with her role in Doctor Who (Planet of the Dead), her character and role in this show was decidedly meek and uninteresting.  Katee (Battlestar Galactica) Sackhoff as the flawed (to put it kindly) first Bionic Woman was far more interesting and should have been the focus of this show.  I suspect it would have done far better.  And, like Commander In Chief, the show started one way, then shifted tone and stories later on.  There were creative conflicts behind the scenes, obvious by those shifts in stories.  I recall that the later episodes tried for a "lighter" romantic tone, which clashed considerably with the more serious life and death tone of the earlier stories.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/18/3D.home.television/index.html

For some reason, it seemed destined to be.  Two dimensional images are nice and all, but for some time now we've desired a more "real" visual experience, and notwithstanding the 3D movies from the 1950's on, the next stage probably involves true 3D images without those clunky glasses.

And, as the article above notes, the next stage are...holograms!

It was Ok.

What?

You want more?

All right...It was a decent reintroduction to the show, but I suspect the goal of this particular episode was to bring in new viewers rather than satisfy old viewers with answers to the questions left over from the first season's cliffhanger.

As such, I think it did what it was supposed to.  I suspect new viewers will like what they see and will return for next week's episode.

However, for those who followed the show last season, the episode didn't offer all that much in the way of plot advancement.  I did enjoy the sly reference to the X-Files in the congressional appropriations meeting (this after pointedly noting how much Fringe is like X-Files, to me), but conversely I saw the surprise ending coming a mile away.  Further, and more frustrating, the stuff we want the show to get into, what agent Olivia Dunham was doing in that alternate dimension seen for only seconds at the conclusion of season one, is conveniently left for another day as the self-same agent suffers from...amnesia.

You know, when I was younger the concept of amnesia in fiction was fascinating.  I thought there were great, great story potentials available.  However, after seeing that old horse dragged out time after time after time, I've grown somewhat bored with it.

The fact of the matter is that lately, whenever a character in some drama suffers "amnesia", I can't help but recognize it as the cliche it has become.  And in the case of the premiere episode of Fringe, its used as a convenient means to an end: A way to avoid giving the viewers too much information all at once (think about it: Had Agent Dunham arrived on "our" Earth intact, then promptly told her fellow agents everything that happened to her on the other side and what they now had to do to stop whatever threat is coming, the episode would have been too information heavy for newcomers to the show.  But, instead of offering some creative way for her to not "spill the beans", the show's writers opted for this more...boring way of easing into the information).

Now, don't get me wrong: I still like the show enough to follow it.  I'm just hoping that it won't be too long before we've moved on (and away) from the tired concept that is...amnesia.

The show, to my mind, started slowly but seemed to build up steam (and lose the below par subplots) as it went along.  I still feel the show is uncomfortably similar to X-Files, but I cannot deny being eager to see its return.

Based on this review, it appears the show is coming back strong:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2009-09-16-fringe_N.htm

At least according to Entertainment Weekly...

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20302134_20304619,00.html

I agree with many of their choices (Police Squad, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, The Venture Brothers, Get a Life (I'm so glad someone remembers that short lived yet hilarious show), etc.) however, how could they have missed the original Star Trek tv show?!

Granted, I was just talking about it (scroll down a little) and, double-granted the TV show eventually spawned a massive amount of sequels/spin offs/movies/etc. which certainly threaten to displace it from the "cult" perch.  But the fact remains that this show was probably ground zero for "cult" TV for many, many years (at least before all those sequels/movies/whathaveyou appeared).  In fact, wasn't Star Trek the first show to be renewed based on fan mail (this way before Chuck and the Subway tie-ins)?

And, while we're at it, another couple that are missing, at least to my mind, are The Wild Wild West and Dark Shadows.  As for WWW, the Will Smith movie was crap, but the TV show was fantastic, a bizarre combination of science fiction, western adventure, and pure pulp action.  Certainly more than worthy of a cult nod.  As for Dark Shadows, I myself was never a big fan of the show, but given the recent hyper interest in vampires, its surprising this vampire centric cult soap opera/horror hybrid wasn't considered among the list provided by EW.

Then again, the list EW provided is a little too tilted toward "modern" (ie no older than 10-15 years) shows.

I'm not a huge fan of "reality" shows, especially those involving a race or contest for something and set in the real world.  The real world, alas, is not a studio, where almost all elements can be controlled.  In the real world, you can fall and break a bone.  You can get a cut and it becomes infected.  You can cross the street a little too quickly, caught in the adrenaline of the show's chase, and not see the car bearing down on you...

In Pakistan, a reality TV show contestant died during one of the show's challenges:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/30/saad-khan-pakistan-realit_n_272335.html

Reading about the challenge horrifies me.  Asking someone to swim across a lake carrying a weighted backpack?  As the article notes:

Reality television shows often subject contenders to harsh physical challenges.

I'd say.

A moderately amusing article from CNN about actors and some of the worst audition experiences they've had:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/24/stars.audition.nightmares/index.html#cnnSTCText

In all honesty, I was somewhat underwhelmed by what the particular actors stated.  I suspect in part they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them, but the stories presented here seemed rather...tame.

Still, worth a look.

A friend posted this, and I just had to share.  Some very clever people have taken music videos and changed the lyrics of the songs presented within so that the videos are more "literal".

Huh?  You ask.  Don't ask...just watch.  (BTW, there are several other "literal" videos on YouTube.  IMHO, this is the best of the lot).

First up, the studio behind the latest Terminator film has filed for bankruptcy:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/08/terminator-producers-file-for-bankrupcty-creditors-include-schwarzenegger-christian-bale-mcg.html

Someone posted a comment to this article that noted no one made any money on films.  I suppose its true and the following line from the article makes me wonder what may be going on behind the scenes (the emphasized part is my own):

Even though the movie has sold a healthy $370 million worth of tickets around the world and has yet to be released on DVD and in other post-theatrical markets, Anderson and Kubicek were unable to make a payment demanded by Santa Barbara hedge fund Pacificor, which financed their $30-million purchase of the "Terminator" rights and loaned $9 million for other operating expenses.

So, despite lukewarm (at best) reviews, the film nonetheless has made quite a bit of money...and this is before the DVD release!  Hrmmmm...

Moving along, I'm pleased that the SciF---er, SyFy Network has renewed the delightful Warehouse 13 for a second season:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007491.html?categoryId=1417&cs=1

I gave the show a try when it first aired based on positive reviews.  Yes, it isn't the most original thing to ever hit TV (the show is a mash up of X-Files and Raiders of the Lost Ark), but the show maintains a breezy, entertaining attitude that is tongue in cheek but never overly broad.  In some ways, its tone reminds me of the also very entertaining Burn Notice, another show that could be overly dramatic but instead chooses to be light and humorous, to very good effect.

Of all the thousand books or so I've read in my lifetime, there is only one that I've come back to and actually re-read more than once: Fredric Brown's The Far Cry (1951).

Mr. Brown (1906-1972) is today probably best known as the author whose science fiction story "Arena" was the eventual basis of the same titled Star Trek (the original series) episode.  You know, the one which featured Kirk versus the reptilian Gorn in a death match on a desert world.

In his lifetime, however, Mr. Brown was known for both his science fictional works as well as his mystery novels, and The Far Cry is an example of the later.

The story involves one George Weaver, a man who isn't in the best mental shape.  He and his wife are very heavy drinkers, and Mr. Weaver is recovering from a nervous breakdown.  He is in repose and, at the beginning of the novel, rents a house outside Taos, New Mexico.  In the course of time, he discovers that a young lady was brutally murdered at that house, and that her identity, and that of the murderer, are still unknown nearly a decade later.

Mr. Weaver is soon obsessed with solving the crime.  He is also haunted by his vision of the victim, to the point where one could say he falls for in love with what he feels she was.

Mr. Weaver's obsession leads him into very strange territory indeed, and the novel's conclusion is nothing short of jaw dropping.

I believe all of Mr. Brown's works are now out of print, which is a great shame.  However, if you sniff around Amazon.com (specifically here) you'll find some of his works.  Should you stumble upon any of his novels or collections of short stories in a second hand bookstore, give them a try.  While I haven't read them all, so far I haven't been disappointed.

But the crown jewel of his career, in my opinion, remains The Far Cry.

Hopefully one day this beautiful, haunting murder mystery will again be in print.

First it was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Now, I just found this online:

http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/08/14/hope-you-enjoyed-that-reno-911-series-finale-in-july/?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl2|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvsquad.com%2F2009%2F08%2F14%2Fhope-you-enjoyed-that-reno-911-series-finale-in-july%2F

When I read the original headline, that a six year running comedy show was canceled, the thought that the show they were referring to was Reno 911 didn't enter my mind.  And yet, there it is.

Granted, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant were doing well with their screenplays (they wrote Night at the Museum and its sequel) and this season started really curiously without three members of the cast (two originals and one that was added later), and I'd be the first to say that the two new members of the cast weren't particularly memorable...

...and yet the show remained very, very funny.  I could scarcely believe how low the cast members (in their individual character) could go.  They were the biggest group of misfits and idiots to walk the planet, yet their interactions were well defined, the people they ran into were generally on their own (very low) level.

Too bad the cancellation was made between seasons...For now (and maybe forever) we don't have a good "farewell" episode.  But maybe -hopefully- the cast will get back together (all of them) and do one.

For the fans.

It's only been a few months since the rebooted (and critically acclaimed) Battlestar Galactica TV show aired its last episode and the new "prequel" series has yet to air.

Already there's word that a new, reboot movie version of Battlestar Galactica is in the works, with director Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns) apparently interested in having a hand in the project in some capacity:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/08/12/bryan-singer-to-reboot-battlestar-galactica/

Frankly, I find the whole thing perplexing (oh, I already mentioned that?! ), to say the least, and even if the project comes about, even if the movie reboot of the reboot turns out to be good, I can't help but feel like the studios risk treading the same grounds over and over a little too much.

Then again, if the film is good...

My family loves the guy.  Short tempered, foul mouthed, a restaurant kitchen fascist (but in a nice way ) if there ever was one.  I can't deny the entertainment value of watching him, although I think the shows presented here in America show a more extreme version of the actual man (in the British shows he seems more "real", although his temper can erupt just as quickly).

However, economic woes are hurting the high end restaurant businesses, including his:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124967205185415131.html

Click on the link below if you want to read about the return of a cast member to the next (and final) season of Lost.  The information is somewhat spoilery, so click wisely:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/08/08/lost-cast-member-confirms-return-for-final-season/

Last night aired the last of the "summer" episodes of Burn Notice, and a mighty good episode it was.

Without spoiling too much, this time around we find Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) reacting to things that get more than a little out of his hands (often the opposite is the case, and usually has a decent control of things around him).  As a result, his reactions in this episode prove quick and, in one case, very deadly.  The later opens the door for what's to come, and it sounds very intriguing.

What started as a tongue in cheek The Prisoner/James Bond meets Miami Vice collage is very nicely evolving into a show about establishing and maintaining roots, both with your home as well as family, friends, and lovers...all while watching out for drug dealers, deposed dictators, Serbian madmen, assorted killers, secret service wet ops, etc. etc...

Another review can be found here:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/08/07/burn-notice-goes-out-with-a-bang-bang/

Interesting article regarding the history of G. I. Joe:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1915120,00.html

This'll really date me, but when I think about G. I. Joe, this is my memory...

Here's the AP news item:

Soooo much has made its way to DVD, yet Entertainment Weekly presents this amusing list of shows that are still -still- not available on DVD and, at least according to them, should be:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20294884_16,00.html

Of the list presented, the one that I'd most like to see is the Batman TV show.  The one that surprises me that isn't yet available is L.A. Law.  A very popular show you would think would have made its way to the shelves by now...

But also unavailable, and not on the list (and I wouldn't mind owning):

The Green Hornet (The original series by the producer of the Batman TV show was a little less tongue in cheek and featured Bruce Lee as Kato.  I suspect this show will probably show up very soon, as Seth Rogan is working on a film version)
Six Million Dollar Man (I know this is a nostalgia choice, but I thought there were several very good episodes in the show's first season)
Our Planet Tonight (OK, I may be stretching things a bit here...this was a one shot TV show by the makers of Airplane! that parodied 20/20 and 60 Minutes-type shows.  I thought the bit about the supposed "twin" brothers was especially hilarious)

As for movies, there's really only one that I can think of that I'd like to get and, at least as of yet, hasn't made it to DVD: the very grindhouse-like Death Weekend (a.k.a. House by the Lake).

When I first saw it (probably in/around 1979/80 or so) it scared the shit out of me.  Brenda Vaccaro made for a very sexy damsel in distress while Don Stroud made for a very, very scary villain.  I haven't seen that film in many, many years, and I'm really curious to see how it holds up.

Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz, the latest hosts of the very long running At The Movies, have apparently been sacked.

What originally began with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, became Ebert and a rotating co-host after Mr. Siskel died, and changed once again after Roger Ebert could no longer host the show due to his illness, are now gone, according to this article:

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7404&eeid=6733840&_sitecat=1479&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=en&rg=blsadstrgt&_lid=332&_lnm=tg+en+topnews&ck=&l=hm

I didn't mind Mr. Lyons and Mankiewicz, although I'd be the first to say their reviews were rather lightweight.  Since (and during) the original Siskel and Ebert years there have been other attempts to emulate their program, but nothing has come close, at least in my opinion.  Siskel and Ebert, together, were witty, sharp, and at times offered surprisingly deep opinions.  When Mr. Siskel passed away, it was still fun watching Roger Ebert, but the magic never quite returned.

I can't help but wonder if At The Movies may be on its last legs.

Yeah, I'm a little bit late seeing this (it aired something like two weeks ago, but only now I've had a chance to see it), but here goes:

Fun, enjoyable, but decidedly light episode.  David Tennant (the Doctor) remains a delight, but that's what the "best" of the Doctors have always been.  Quirky, humorous, seemingly absent minded yet conversely ingenious and sharp.

The real revelation was Michelle Ryan (previous seen on the aborted remake of The Bionic Woman) as the jewel thief Lady Christina de Souza.  While I didn't think The Bionic Woman relaunch was horrible, I thought Michelle Ryan's character was incredibly bland.  When Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) showed up as the semi-crazed "first" bionic woman, however, the show suddenly had life, and I wondered why the show wasn't about her character instead of the bland Michelle Ryan's Jamie Summers.

Genius that I am, I thought the fault lay in the acting of Michelle Ryan instead of the producers/directors/writers who obviously wanted Jamie Summers presented that way.

I'm confident in saying that because Michelle Ryan is nothing short of great in The Planet of the Dead.  Given that David Tennant has years perfecting his version of the good Doctor, its amazing that Ms. Ryan slips so easily into her role, which is a perfect match to Mr. Tennant.  Her character is bold, sexy, intelligent, and an obvious thrill seeker.  She's also very much her own woman, and its a real shame that her appearance in this Easter special will likely be her only one (unless things change when the show returns with its new Doctor).

Looking back now (and hindsight is always 20/20), how much better would The Bionic Woman be if Michelle Ryan had been allowed to play the role of Jamie Summers more in this mold?

Anyway, getting back to the episode itself: Great fun.  The Doctor and a group of bus passengers go through a rift and find themselves on the "Planet of the Dead".  In the course of the episode they discover why it has become what it is, and how Earth might share a similar fate.

Don't go in to The Planet of the Dead expecting Gone With The Wind or Citizen Kane.  It is neither that deep or that classic.

It is, however, a fun ride.

You probably have nothing on Ryan O'Neal and his extended family.  This article is like a train wreck: grisly and horrifying, but just try to look away:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/ryan-oneal-i-hit-on-my-da_n_249668.html

Hitting on your daughter immediately after Farrah Fawcett's funeral?

Ouch!

One of my all time favorite television shows is The Prisoner.  There has been talk for a while of remaking the show, either for film or television.  At one time, I seem to recall there was talk that Mel Gibson was considered for the title role.

Didn't happen.  AMC is releasing their remake of The Prisoner, and while it looks intriguing, it seems to be going its own way, too, specifically in stating that people within the village seem to think that there is no world outside it.  A strange conceit, as is the fact that Number 6 (the lead) appears more confused about things than the original, who appeared to be the type that always landed on his feet:

I don't think there's been a show that has made me vacillate as much on its merits as Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.  The first season was, for the most part, a train wreck.  The show crawled out of the gate sporting silly storylines and what appeared to be a great lack of focus.  Word was that Fox studio suits were interferring with the final product, but a part of me was willing to give the show far more rope than I would have any other, if only because I wanted to see more (successful) Joss Whedon stuff.

There were some good episodes in the first season, but overall I felt that the late, lamented Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles deserved to be renewed over Dollhouse, yet it still stands (and will return next season) while TTSCC is history.

Having said all that, I'm intrigued by the unaired episode featured in the DVD set of Dollhouse's first season.  First presented at the San Diego Comic Con, the episode flash forwards to a post-apocalyptic Earth and the culmination/aftermath of the events presented in the series.  Also included in the DVD and almost as intriguing is the original pilot, which some have commented is better than what eventually aired.

However, one really, REALLY big caveat: The first season boxed set is priced at a ludicrous $44.99 for the Blu Ray edition at Amazon ($28.49 for the standard DVD edition) and I certainly didn't like the skimpy 13 episode season enough to spend that much on it...

So, until I rent it or find it on sale (cheap) somewhere, this review of the first season's box set will have to do:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/07/28/dollhouse-dvd-released-today-is-it-worth-your-time-and-money/

William Shatner does Sarah Palin's "farewell" speech.  Hilarity ensues:

There was a time I didn't care at all for sports.  You couldn't have forced me to sit through a game (didn't matter which) even with a gun to my head.  Then, suddenly, I became a sports fanatic, and started watching all the major sporting events on TV (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey).

That lasted for maybe two or three years, and now I've leveled out.  I catch games here and there, but hockey is hard to watch on TV, and both baseball and basketball present such loooong seasons that the only compelling games come at the end, in the playoffs.

But Football seems to have been created for TV.  We get one burst of activity followed by several "dead" seconds, even minutes that the networks can fill with glorious, mythologically enhanced slow motion multiple angle views of the very same play we just saw.  Rinse, shampoo, and repeat.

Still, Football intrigues me the most of all the sports and, for what it's worth, here you have a pre-season analysis of team strengths.  Of course, once the first game begins, all bets may well be off...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/don_banks/07/28/pre-camp-rankings/index.html

I picked up the paper today and, like other days, noted its getting awfully thin.  It started, of course, when the local papers which were beefed up with Real Estate advertisements (among many others) suddenly had almost no advertisements for property sales.  Both local and national papers, I'm noting, are getting awfully smaller.

And here's another sign of the changing economy: Harvey Schwartz, owner of 20th Century Props, has run out of money and is forced to auction off his collection of movie props.  Seems Hollywood is losing out on film work (other states are offering tax incentives to bring productions there, and you must have read by now the economic problems within California) and Mr. Schwartz is another example of the weakened economy:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/07/28/hollywood.prop.sale/index.html

The fifth and final episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth just aired tonight on BBC America and I figured, since I had spoken about this mini-series and my interest in the show's previous two seasons, I might as well offer some opinions.

Briefly: This miniseries was well worth watching.  Even if you don't know a thing about Torchwood or its cast of characters, you'll be fine.  The story is fully self contained and the five episodes of this series air again, I believe, on Sunday.

A little bit longer (beware SPOILERS): The show has a definate Quatermass-vibe going on.  The plot: One day, the children of earth begin speaking in unison...all in english...and it sounds like they're telling the people of Earth that something is coming.  What is this being that communicates through Earth's children?  What is this being's purpose?  And why has its impending arrival triggered such alarming reactions from those high up in the British government, actions that include sanctioning murder?

High on the government's list for extermination is Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), the immortal who happens to be the leader of Torchwood, a (somewhat) secret agency whose job it is to deal with alien threats.

During the course of the next five episodes (each representing, a la 24 a passing day), we'll see a cadre of villains and heroes, people whose loyalties and motivation change with the situations confronting them.  We'll see heroism and cowardice, and we'll see the worst humanity has to offer as we'll see the best (even if sometimes it might not seem that way).

But be warned: This is not a cheery Independence Day sci-fi action extravaganza.  Indeed, its generally downbeat tone might turn away some viewers.  For others, though, you may cherish the Greek style tragedy that permiates the main story.  The sins of the past come back to haunt the present and threaten the future.  To set things right, more than one character will atone for his sins by making an unbearable sacrifice.

It can be a rough trip, but it's one well worth taking.

The only quibble against the show: Hour four of the five is probably the weakest of the lot.  While still pretty good, this was the hour (before the incredible wrap up of Day 5) that felt the most stretched out.  Within that episode Captain Jack and his partner/lover Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) do something awfully...foolish.  They rush into a very dangerous situation without any plan other than to crack wise to their enemy.  The results, given the downbeat tone of the show, are predictable.

However, this is a minor problem when looking at the show as a whole.

While the ending of this mini-series suggest a rather heavy final finale, I'm hoping we'll get more Torchwood in the future.

For characters as good as these, I can't help but hope for happier endings.

Back in 1985 director Guy Hamilton (best known for directing such as Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, Funeral In Berlin, Battle of Britain, etc.) was involved with another action adventure movie, one the producers viewed as a potential series of films that might, just might, become the U.S. version of the James Bond franchise.

The movie, starring Fred Ward as the title character, was optimistically named Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.  As a movie, it wasn't bad, although I feel Leonard Maltin's assessment is dead on: (Remo Williams) comes close to scoring bull's-eye but misfires too many times.

The movie, based on The Destroyer series of novels, proved less successful than the producers hoped, and the adventure, at least in the theaters, began and ended right there.

But the adventure, as it turned out, continued one more time, on television.  Released in 1988, Remo Williams, the television series pilot, boasted the acting juggernaut team of Jeffrey Meek as Remo Williams and Roddy McDowall as Chiun, his mentor.

Up until a couple of nights ago, I didn't know such a creature existed, and after having seen it, I'm not entirely surprised.  Not surprised, that is, I never heard of it.

Just for the record, the TV pilot features the same music from the film and, in the opening credits, it also featured clips of what was probably the most famous scene from the movie (Remo Williams fighting and swinging around the Statue of Liberty).  What the TV show lacks, however, is an engaging protagonist and a coherent, engaging plot.

When the show opens, "the adventure begins" is over, but Chiun is still a smart ass who continuously insults and berates our all-American hero Remo.  But his contract to teach Remo is done and he's packed up and ready to return to Korea.  But, just as he's about to board the plane, he's convinced to stay behind a little while longer (streeeetch the show's time).  He returns to train Remo some more, but is distressed by Remo's pride and decides to hire a killer to "injure" Remo.  To teach Remo some much needed humility.

The killer, however, seeks to become Chiun's pupil, so he takes his task a couple of steps too far and kills Remo, but Remo is revived which fulfills Chiun's prophecy of...

Oh what's the use?

The show was a complete mess.

To be honest, the only thing that stuck in my mind about this brief 45-50 minute show was the fact that Jeffrey Meek not once, not twice, not three times...but FOUR times looked directly at the camera, thus breaking the fourth wall, and offered the one or two viewers still watching this show a "can you believe this shit?" look.

I only wish he could see the look I was giving him right back.

Interesting interview with the hosts of Discovery's Mythbusters (the show started contesting urban myths but has moved on to other things) on their attempts to prove that we did indeed go to the Moon...

Got my DVR set up to record.

Five episodes in five nights, Monday through Friday.  Early word, as the series has already aired in England, is that it's good, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-07-19-torchwood-children-of-earth_N.htm

Ain't It Cool News offered a group of reviews, most of which were good (one of the group was a thumbs down):

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41739

I had/have no interest in seeing Dark Blue, the new TNT series.  Looked like another one of those cop shows that try to be "edgy" and theatrical but come off as too much of a product and not enough reality.  At least that's what it appeared to me from the commercials.

As I sad, I had/have no interest in seeing it.

Appears my instincts were correct, if we were to go by another very entertaining review by Heather Havrilesky.  Did I mention I love her TV reviews?  Oh, I did, didn't I, in the header.  Well, indulge me.  Let me mention it once again.

Meanwhile, here's her latest review:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/07/19/dark_blue/

Vampires are all the rage of late (I worked, for a while, on an Independently published one back in the day, and it was the best selling work I ever had).

With the success of Twilight, it appears many are searching far and wide for the next big vampire thing, and of late that seems to be True Blood on HBO.  Now, I've never seen an episode of the series but, again, it appears to be a popular, well received show.

So when I saw the headline posted at the top of this entry, I was curious why this particular reviewer thought the show "lost" him:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/207087

For those curious, here is an interesting article that offers a primer, of sorts, regarding Torchwood.

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7403&eeid=6691727&_sitecat=1479&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne&s=en&rg=blsadstrgt&l=hm

Remember, the third series (season) begins airing next week on BBC America.  It's a five part mini-series and runs from Monday through Friday.

This article, I feel, shouldn't be too surprising: It appears ratings for the major networks during the summer months so far have been dismal:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-07-12-summer-ratings_N.htm

My guess, which is pointed out in the article, is that shows on the cable networks are eroding ratings for the big networks.  Which begs the question: Why don't they compete?  Shows like Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, and (upcoming on BBC) Torchwood are what I'm looking at.  Why not try to present original, interesting programming during the off season?

Last night I finally got to see the pilot episode of Warehouse 13 on the Sci-Fi...er... Syfy network, and it was pleasant enough couple of hours.

I can't say the movie totally blew me away, however, as the show (at least at this point) is little more than a pastiche of other movies and TV shows.  The most obvious similarities are to the concluding scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark while using the otherworldly/mysterious exploration by a male/female agent team, ala X-Files.

I suppose when Steven Spielberg presented that warehouse full of boxed items at the end of ROTLA, prompting audiences to wonder what else the government was storing away (you know, other than the ark of the covenant), he couldn't have known the inspiration such a scene would draw.  Warehouse 13 uses that concluding shot as the core of the show, and the location of its headquarters.  Warehouse 13 is, indeed, a warehouse filled with weird and magical (and dangerous things).  The goal of the male/female agents is to pick up other weird and magical (and, yes, dangerous) things and get them to the warehouse, where they won't do any harm.

Many may not remember this, but Friday the 13th, the TV series (1987-1990), had a similar setup, too.  Only in that show, the protagonists (male/female as well) were retrieving cursed objects that had flown the coop from a magic shop their aged relative willed to them...after he was shunted to hell by the items he collected.  So, mix Raiders, X-Files, and Friday the 13th, and you essentially have this show.

Ultimately, however, what makes the show work is the interaction of the three leads.  As I said before, you have the male/female agents who have been called up to retrieve the weird items (their opposites attract interaction, as was the Mulder/Scully interaction of X-Files, is a good source of amusement.  In the end they develop an interesting, if not as strong, bond).  You also have Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), the man who watches over the warehouse.  He's amusing and something of a wild card, at times a source of humor for his mannerisms but at other times deadly serious.

I also enjoyed the retro-futuristic elements of the show: A bulky video phone invented shortly after the creation of television.  A car that Thomas Edison made using human electricity as its source of power (Nielsen explains that Henry Ford didn't want to sell it.  He preferred gas powered engines because they wore down.  Mr. Ford made money, after all, selling automobiles.  Obsolescence was a plus).  And, finally, an electric gun invented by Tesla.

So, overall, I'd recommend the show.  My only hope is that it develops its own unique identity because at this point, it's heavily borrowing from others.

It's available for $19.99 around these parts in Target and $17.99 (for this week only) at Best Buy.

Amazon.com is selling it for $17.99 as well.

In a move that has been mercilessly mocked, the Sci Fi Network has become, as of today, the Syfy Network.  Pronounced the same but spelled differently, one of the better outright mocking of the new name could be found in Heather Havrilesky's excellent three or so paragraphs at the start of the following webpage:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/07/05/warehouse_13/index1.html

In her words:

Of course, nothing makes me more impatient and glib than the news that Sci Fi is changing its name to "Syfy," reportedly to make it clear that the channel includes not just science fiction, but fantasy, the supernatural and the paranormal.

Don't scoff! Branding is important these days. Why, just the other day I was considering changing my name from Heather Havrilesky to SeaDonkia Fleur, to make it clear that I'm not just a TV critic but also a human being, a digital word artist, and a handy disposable wipe. If people see the name "Havrilesky" they might not understand every facet of what my "brand" has to offer, but if they see "SeaDonkia Fleur" they'll know that I'm a complete asshole.

So, what is the real reason that the Sci Fi Network has decided to rebrand themselves?  And will it work?  A more even headed analysis follows:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/06/scifi.syfy.change/index.html

Torchwood, for my money, is my favorite Science Fictional TV series currently airing in the UK (I'm also a fan of the show it spun off from, Doctor Who, as well as Primeval, which is like an at times goofy take on Jurassic Park but with a clever mix of time travel and some very, very wild...uh...cast changes).

With Torchwood you have an X-Files-like show that features a protagonist who is immortal, alien, and a major sexual hedonist.  The crew around him are intriguing, and the stories are usually quite good (there are clunkers here and there, but overall I like the show's imagination and quality).

Season 3 of Torchwood began airing on the BBC.  Unfortunately, this season consists of a single five episode (1 hour each) mini-series, a major bummer after having two full seasons of 13 episodes each.  Still, I'll be there when BBC America begins airing the show (in HD!) on July 20th and, hopefully, we'll see more of this show (as opposed to Primeval, which I understand was cancelled after three seasons.  On the plus side, Warner Brothers has apparently bought the rights to Primeval and perhaps we'll see an Americanized version of it, maybe in movie form, sometime soon).

Meanwhile, Ain't It Cool News featured some spoilery reviews of that first aired episode of Torchwood:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41611

I know this comes as somewhat old news, but I finally got around to watching the (not picked up) pilot for Ron (Battlestar: Galactica) Moore's Virtuality.  Before the show first aired, I wrote about it and presented a review by Heather Havrilesky here:

http://ertorre.com/randomthoughts/CommentView,guid,01c9ae51-9df3-44a7-b6c2-ca91204dfee1.aspx

The best line of Ms. Havrilesky's review, I felt, was:

Essentially, "Virtuality" is a two-hour-long teaser, an extended trip to a really excellent strip bar that ends with a cold shower.

She's correct that, as it stands so far (and unless Fox shifts gears and decides to pick the show up) Virtuality is a great pilot but a very unsatisfying stand alone movie.  We are just getting to the interesting stuff when the movie's credits tell us the trip is over, probably for good.

On the other hand, I felt that some elements at the end of the show pointed out a scenario that, to me, was almost too familiar.  Now, for those who didn't see the show, I'll offer a very brief recap: The crew of a spaceship is heading to a distant sun to look for a habitable planet.  Their journey is to take 10 years and becomes urgent when they are informed Earth is deteriorating due to global warming.

Because the journey is very long and the crew needs their "private" time, their ship is equipped with a virtual reality system to go along with their HAL-like computer.  The crew members slip on a set of funky glasses and away they go into their fantasy world.

However, someone or something has breached the virtual reality program, and appears as the same person with very evil intentions in several of the characters' virtual worlds.  This individual alterately a) kills the protagonists while they're in the virtual world (which, while it does NOT kill them in the "real" world, scares the hell out of them) and b) intrudes on one of the characters' Alias type scenario and rapes her.  The evil being appears in a third virtual world, but his appearance is brief and that scenario (involving his being a gynecologist) never is fleshed out beyond the fact that he's there.

The pilot ends with the death of the Captain in a bizarre 2001-like accident that leaves at least one of the crewmembers certain that someone in the crew is a murderer.  However, the Captain's death comes AFTER he appears to gain some insight into what is happening with this virtual reality stuff.

So, we have a movie that, surface wise, sure does take plenty of cues from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 (the astronauts are in a very Discovery-like craft and are dealing with a very HAL like computer), parts from Star Trek: The Next Generation (the holodeck is messing the ship up!), and, perhaps most significantly to what MIGHT have been coming, elements of The Matrix.

Now, this is raw speculation on my part, but the last lines from the Captain all but screamed out that he discovered the un-reality of their so-called reality.  Whether he was going crazy or had somehow cracked the "secret" we may never know, but I think that's where it was going.

Virtuality is worth a look, I suppose, because it is a well done pilot.  On the other hand, Ms. Havrilesky is also quite right: If you don't want to spend two hours watching something without any sense of conclusion, then perhaps you're better of skipping it.

Heather Havrilesky is quickly becoming one of my favorite TV critics.  Her essays are humorous and provide intriguing detail to the shows she reviews, whether I may disagree with her ultimate assessment or not (although I usually do).

Here's her take on Warehouse 13, the new show from SciFi (er...SyFy Network) and her opinion on season 4 of the same channel's Eureka.  I'm intrigued about both, I must admit (I never caught Eureka before, and I think I'll try out Warehouse 13 based on this, and other, reviews).

However, I urge you to check out her first few paragraphs on page 2 of this article, wherein she explores the utter absurdity of the SciFi Network becoming the SyFy Network, and considers a name change of her own.  Funny stuff, at least IMHO!

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/07/05/warehouse_13/

This comes as a pretty big surprise: I know that studios have in the past rushed to release DVD sets of their TV shows soon after the season has ended (the last 24 season, for example, was released the day after they aired the season finale).

But is this the first time a season of a TV show is released to DVD the day BEFORE the season finale airs on TV?  Yes, the season finale of Reno 911! airs on July 8th, the day AFTER they release the DVD of season six!

While I (obviously) haven't seen the season finale yet, I'll go out on a limb and say that season 6 of the series has been a smashing success.  I'm still smarting from the release of two of the three old cast members (I don't know the behind the scenes stuff, but based on what little I've read, I can't help but feel that there was some friction there).  I'll even add that I'm not all that enamored of the two new cast members (they contributed very little, IMHO, to the season).

But having said all that, season 6 of the show was still hilarious, and I will most certainly be picking up the DVD set when it arrives.  After six seasons and the loss of those cast members, you would think they'd be running out of gas.

You'd be wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Reno-911-Complete-Sixth-Season/dp/B0025X4PBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246801768&sr=8-1

I'm not what you'd call a HUGE fan of baseball, but I watch a game now and again and found this article which points out that how your television station presents a baseball game impacts how you perceive the pitches.

What's really great about the article is that it offers two television angles to a few pitches.  One, the one I usually get to see with our local baseball team, is really off.  Another, I suppose less commonly used angle, gives you a better view of a pitch and whether its a strike or ball.

Fascinating stuff!

http://www.slate.com/id/2221384/

Just got around to finally seeing this latest episode of my favorite summer show, and it was good, as usual, with two interesting stories told simultaneously.

Alas, Ken Tucker didn't provide any critique of the episode, which featured a resolution of sorts between Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) and Detective Paxson (Moon Goodblood), something I figured was about to happen based solely on the previews from the previous episode.  To Mr. Tucker: I hope it worked for you, given how impatient you were with that subplot.

But the big surprise turned out to be the secondary story involving Sam's (Bruce Campbell) being audited by the IRS.  I won't spoil anything for those who didn't see the episode, but the (very sweet) resolution seemed to come out of left field, and it was delightful.

Ok, maybe I'm reading waaaay too much into a heading which, as of this moment, you can read at the home page of ew.com (click #5 of the seven headlines to see this particular article's title).

When you click #5, you see a picture of actor Mark Pellegrino, who played the mysterious Jacob in the season finale of Lost, but more curious is the headline to the article, which reads:

"Lost baddie goes Supernatural".

Now, click on that story and you're directed to the article linked below.  Only now, the headline reads: "Lost star finds hellish Supernatural gig".  It's about how actor Mark Pellegrino, Lost's Jacob, has landed the role of Lucifer in the TV show Supernatural.

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/06/supernatural-scoop-mark-pellegrino-is-lucifer.html

As I said before...maybe I'm reading more into this than I should (after all, it is entirely possible the headline the folks at ew.com intended to use was more in line with: Lost star to play Supernatural baddie).

Then again, might Mr. Ausiello (a man who seems to have very good contacts within the world of TV production) or someone at ew.com have accidentally let a very large Lost cat out of the bag?  After all, the season finale of the show made Jacob seem to be a "good" guy.

Was that all misdirection?  Was Jacob ultimately meant to be revealed as evil?

Stay tuned!

UPDATE:  I just went to ew.com's home page (http://www.ew.com/ew) clicked on #5, and, what do you know...the headline has been changed.

The new headline now reads: Lost star goes Supernatural.

Hmmmm....

I don't know if its becoming something of a very, very strange trend: Fast food advertisements that have overtly sexual symbolism.  This article makes mention of two of the ads, a Burger King one (a print ad that, frankly, is pretty...obvious) and, the one the author gets really "steamed" about, the Hardee's Biscuit Holes (I'm tempted to recommend you not see this at work, even if it is an actual TV ad!):

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/06/hardees-biscuit-holes-ad.html

However, I believe one of the first sexualized fast food ads (at least the first that I was aware of) might be this one, from Quiznos:

Hard to believe that, like the Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson Batman movie, Law and Order has been around in one form or another for twenty years.

I enjoyed the Chris Noth/Vincent D'Onofrio episodes of L&O: Criminal Intent, but didn't really go out of my way to seek them out.  When Noth left, Jeff Goldblum stepped in, and this article considers his character within the show, and wonders if he's winking at the viewers and turning the formula inside out:

http://www.slate.com/id/2221234/

Now that I've read the article, I'm curious to the point that I'll definately seek the Goldbum episodes out!

I've been curious about this TV movie/TV show pilot which will air tomorrow evening on Fox.

The reviewer, Heather Havrilesky, is most unkind: She feels that this is a great premise that ends just when things start getting good...that this is a pilot movie that, at this moment, will take us no where (the pilot was NOT picked up for anything beyond this movie).  She wonders if there's a point to watching it, other than the hope by Fox and company that enough people will find what they see enjoyable that perhaps it might lead to a regular series being ordered.

So, to see it or not to see it?  I'm intrigued to see some more of Ron Moore (his Battlestar Galactica was a superb series).  Then again, I'm still smarting from the incredible (and, unless something really extraordinary happens) never to be resolved cliffhanger at the end of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Do I really want to put myself through that again?

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2009/06/25/virtuality/

Spotted this on Ain't It Cool News:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41490

I didn't catch Heroes during its first season run, but after hearing SO much praise decided to pick that season up when it arrived on DVD.  I was hoping for something good, and was willing to give it a shot before the second season started.

I found parts of the show decent enough, but it seemed to me the first season of Heroes was building up to a very clear ending...an ending that involved many of the characters we had come to know dying in order to save the world (good guys as well as the one major big bad guy).  But the show got so wildly popular that (and, I freely admit, this is pure supposition on my part) the people behind the scenes lost their nerve and/or decided they couldn't go through with their original plans...after all, there was a second season to do, and how could they do it with out so many of their major characters?

So the ending of season 1 became, effectively, a complete non-ending.  Everyone survived, even the big bad guy.

In the end, I walked away from season 1 of Heroes unimpressed.  I didn't bother to catch the following seasons and, based on the negative word of mouth, it appears I did the right thing.

However, those who are fans of the show noted that during its rough patch one of the show's original masterminds, Bryan Fuller, left the show.  They were optimistic to hear he was back.

Alas, according to the above article, he's gone once again.

An interesting article about surrealist artist Salvador Dali.  It seems he paid off his dermatology bill with sketches:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31468610/ns/entertainment-arts_books_more/

Reminds me of a hilarious SNL skit from many years ago.  In it Jon Lovitz (unless my memory is playing tricks on me, he was the star) played Pablo Picasso.

Picasso (Lovitz) eats at a cafe and, when presented with the bill, draws a doodle in under two seconds on the paper and hands it back to the waiter.  The befuddled waiter looks at the scrawl and Picasso thrusts his hands up and says something to the effect of: "It's a Picasso!"

The joke, of course, is that this is how Picasso goes through the day:  He gets all kinds of goodies/services and doesn't pay anything for them, instead investing a whole second or two to draw a crappy sketch, proclaim it to be a genuine "Picasso" piece of art, and move on.  The people he gives the quick sketches to, of course, are so in awe of possessing a genuine Picasso piece that they don't complain!

As those who regularly keep up with this blog know, I enjoy Burn Notice, the oddball spy comedy/action series set in Miami and starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless.

I read the following review by Ken Tucker from ew.com of the season's third episode, "End Run", and found it curious that he leveled the following criticism:

This is now the second week in a row that Moon Bloodgood's police detective Paxson has sauntered in a scene to threaten Michael with her ongoing investigation of him, and this subplot is increasingly looking like a repetitive drag. There's nothing wrong with Bloodgood's performance, it's just that she's obliged to do the same thing every week: walk up to Michael, smile knowingly (about what?), say she's going to catch him doing bad stuff, and then exit, without making good on her promise. Come on, Burn Notice, do something with this character or drop her, willya?

Now, let me repeat something: This is the THIRD EPISODE of the season.

THIRD.

He's already tired of Moon Bloodgood's character after she's appeared a total of 3 times?  And in this last appearance, it's clear the animosity between her character and Donovan's has just climbed several notchs (he did, after all, (SPOILER!) get her right hand man fired in the course of this episode).

So, to me, what we've got is a classic story buildup going on here.  We were introduced to Bloodgood's character, she reappeared in the second episide to show she hasn't gone anywhere, and then in the third episode Michael Weston stuck back.  Thus, her appearances have hardly been "repetitive" (even if we're to allow great latitude on the use of that phrase...THIRD EPISODE folks!).

Anyway, sorry to make so much out of what is, in the end, a fairly trivial thing.  Maybe I'm getting tired of people demanding "instant gratification" of everything and not being able to sit back and enjoy a good, old fashioned story buildup...for three freaking episodes.

Regardless, the rest of the review can be found here:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/06/burn-notice-usa-network-the-shield.html

Ok, moving from the serious to something lighter: Speculation on the upcoming last season of Lost.  Doc Jensen offers some (at times head scratching) speculation:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20250233_20284996,00.html

I'm completely in the dark regarding where this show is going, although I suspect the "they're coming" line did relate to the fact that the time lost (as opposed to simply "lost lost") cast is coming back to the present.  As to what they'll do there...

Btw, every time I see Lost I can't help but chuckle.  Why?  Because of the initial thoughts of author Peter David regarding the show's pilot.  He said the show shouldn't be called "Lost".  Given what the cast went through in that initial episode (the plane crash, attacked by some monstrous shadowy creature that roared like a dinosaur), he felt a more appropriate name for the series was "Fucked".

Potentially exciting news for those who are fans of Patrick McGoohan's wild wild trip of a TV show, The Prisoner: It is coming to Blu Ray and already listed on Amazon.com (however, without a solid release date):

http://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Blu-ray-Patrick-McGoohan/dp/B002C68WOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1244986525&sr=1-1

The reason I state "potentially" good news is because if you scroll to the bottom of the page and read some of the reviews, you'll find that at least a couple of people have presented some bad news regarding A&E's recent Prisoner releases.  I heard the 40th Anniversary set was pretty much botched, and that the European release presented a far better picture than what was on the supposedly "remastered" American release.

Anyway, it is my hope that A&E learn from their mistakes and this Blu Ray edition is indeed the best it can possibly be.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Prisoner, check out this link at imdb.com:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/

The show is probably my all time favorite television series.  It lasted only 18 episodes and was originally released in 1967.  The plot: A British secret agent (what agency he worked for, indeed, all personal information regarding the man, including his actual name (!) is a mystery) decides, angrily, to confront his boss and quit.  He goes home, intent on flying away, and is gassed and kidnapped, waking up on a mysterious island where the overlords demand he reveal the reasons for why he quit.

But why go into details?  The opening of the show (a classic all its own), reveals the thrust of the show's plot in a tidy few minutes:

ew.com has a mini-interview with Joss Whedon, the man behind Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and, of course, Dollhouse.  Seems he's pretty excited about season 2 of the later show, which is now being plotted...

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/06/joss-whedon-buffy-dollhouse-1.html

You know, its been a bit since the last episode of Dollhouse aired, and my feelings regarding the show haven't changed all that much.  I feel Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles should have been renewed rather than Dollhouse, but I can understand Fox's decision (they own Dollhouse and stand to make more from its continued existence versus TTSCC).  I will further grant you that Dollhouse has potential.

However, the fact of the matter is that the first season of Dollhouse was, with the exception of a couple of episodes, mediocre to almost unwatchable.  While there was word of Fox higher ups meddling in the series, I think the quality, or lack thereof, of the show's first season lies primarily with Whedon and his writing staff.

They went into this series, it felt to me, without a terribly strong idea of where they were going.  Worse, they seemed squeamish about the sexual reality of the "Dollhouse" service: It is a whorehouse.  That is the primary reason it exists.  It has to be.  Why else would anyone want to hire young, nubile beautiful men and woman if not to have completely anonymous and guilt free sex?  Instead, we're "treated" to silly Mission: Impossible type plots that are far fetched and rather boring.

The bottom line is that the show returns and Joss Whedon, at least in this interview, appears energized by its prospects and revitalized by a sense of understanding where they're going.  Now anyway.

Let's hope.

You know, it seemed like it had to happen.  It was just a matter of time before Ms. Sackhoff (who, along with Edward James Olmos was the most interesting character on Battlestar Galactica, IMHO, of course!), would show up on some heavy hitting/highly rated show.

I figured she was big enough to get a role either in 24 or Lost, and given that Lost was heading into its final season and likely didn't need a new cast member...

So we get to see her in 24 next season.  Can't wait (they have to include Tony as well, no?)

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/06/exclusive-katee.html

Last night was the season premiere of Burn Notice on USA Network.

I really enjoy the show, although I'd be the first to note that this is light entertainment.  We're not talking a huge intellectual jigsaw puzzle of a show like The Prisoner (although, as I have mentioned before, both Burn Notice and that classic British show share certain plot similarities!) or Battlestar Galactica.

Instead, what we've got is a breezy, humorous, entertaining show about a super spy who's been "burned" from his position and now must rely on his wits and friends/family to survive.

The big change this season is that the whole "who burned me" plot appears over, and the "company" has now washed their hands of Michael Weston (the show's protagonist)...but their choice in doing so was far from benevolent.  They want him to feel the heat of being exposed to all his enemies (they are no longer protecting him), with their ultimate goal being to have him come crawling back to them.

Sound complicated?  It really isn't.  Give the show a try.

The link below is to another review:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/06/burn-notice-season-premiere-did-you-think-it-was-hot.html

You know, it's one of those movie cliche's that has really become old.  On the MTV movie awards, they parodied this very cliche in the following song.

But first, check out this review of the Wolverine film by Roger Ebert, wherein he makes the exact same comment:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090429/REVIEWS/904299978

For those not interested in reading the entire article, the pertinent line follows:

"When a man can leap from an exploding truck, cling to an attacking helicopter, slice the rotor blades, ride it to the ground, leap free and walk away (in that ancient cliche where there's a fiery explosion behind him but he doesn't seem to notice it), here's what I think: Why should I care about this guy? He feels no pain and nothing can kill him, so therefore he's essentially a story device for action sequences."

As for the video, it follows (after a short ad):

Heather Havrilesky provides a good rundown on many of the new/returning shows for summer.

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/05/31/summer_tv/

For those interested, Burn Notice returns next week on USA (Thursday at 9pm, according to my DVR).  BN is a fun little show that features Jeffrey Donovan as a James Bond level secret agent who is stripped of his secret agent status and (like The Prisoner) locked up in a place (Miami) against his will.

The show is quirky, funny, and light, perfect summer fare.  And, given the fact that there are so few new shows out there, something well worth checking out.

Reno 911!, on the other hand, is coming to an end, and this season has been another delight.  You would think that after six seasons they might run out of funny things to show, but you'd be wrong.

I was disheartened after finding three of the regular characters were gone this season, but, although I still miss their presence, Reno continues to be hilarious.  The new guys (two of them), still haven't impressed me all that much, but neither have they hurt the show at all.

Well worth watching, as well.

I've mentioned before being a fan of the Starz original comedy show Head Case.

It features Alexandra Wentworth as Dr. Elizabeth Goode, psychologist to the (Hollywood) stars.  She's vapid, dense, childish, and exactly the WRONG person anyone should use to work out personal issues, which makes her interactions with equally vapid real life Hollywood stars playing cartoon versions (I hope!) of themselves so very amusing.  Among the familiar faces: Jeff Goldblum, Andy Dick, Jonathan Silverman, Paulina Porizkova, and Jerry Seinfeld.

And as good as some of those crazy sessions are, equally humorous is the story of how Dr. Goode tries (but constantly, miserably, fails) to find love and happiness.

I've likened the show to Reno 911! before, in the sense that both shows present us with a group of sociopaths, narcissists, and screw ups who we're left wondering just how low they can go...and they invariably find new depths.

HOWEVER...

I felt that Head Case's last two episodes of this season weren't as funny as most of the ones that came before.  Perhaps they were running out of gas, I don't know.

Regardless, I still recommend the show to anyone interested.  Click on the link below to get to the IMDB listing.  You will find full episodes of Head Case available to be seen there, for free.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0904627/

The article runs two "pages" and its focus is initially on the upcoming TV season, but toward the end the author, Heather Havrilesky, quite literally tears into the season finale of 24.  I can't argue her points, as they are quite valid (I never mentioned it before, but one of the big negatives, to me, of the season was the female President of the United States...nothing against the actress portraying her, but she was written to be so befuddled).

As I stated in my review, my main complaint was that the season seemed to end with a big "to be continued" sign.  Perhaps because I've seen so much of that lately (in just about every show I watch) it didn't bother me that much.  Unlike Ms. Havrilesky, I'm certain that we haven't seen the last of Tony Almeida.  I just hope when he shows up next season they'll make a more complete story arc.

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2009/05/24/fall_tv/index1.html

Several days late, I know, but it wasn't until yesterday I finally had the chance to see it.

Before I get to my thoughts: I'm so very thankful for the internet.  I use satellite provided cable, and I love it, but it has one major defect: If it rains, there is a good chance the signal will be interrupted or cut off entirely.  Monday night, while 24's season finale aired, it started raining.  Hard.  Yesterday, when I finally cued the DVR to see the show, I got only a half hour into the two hour finale before the damage was evident.

But, as I said before: Thank you internet.  All I had to do was go to Fox.com and, voila, there was the show's finale, ready for me to see.

Brief opinions: The ending was decent, but its the first time I've seen a 24 have such a non-ending end.  For all intents and purposes, when all was said and done the producers should have affixed a sign stating "to be continued".


SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!


For we have been introduced to the idea that there are a group of powerful people out there scheming to bring the U.S. government down...yet we only identify one of them (perhaps the most powerful of the group, but who knows), and it's strongly hinted he's covered his tracks well enough that it's unlikely he can be prosecuted.  This leads to FBI agent Rene Walker deciding to...do what exactly?  She cuffs Janice Gold (Janeane Garafalo) and ominously walks into the holding cell of the "big bad guy" (Alan Wilson, played by Will Patton), whereupon we fade out of that scene.

The audience is left to wonder what exactly she does with the man.

In between we deal with the lingering issues of the president's daughter contacting a hit man to rid the world of Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight).  The president's choice is tough and her family is ripped apart, but, again, we're left with some unfinished business: Who was the hitman?  Will he figure in some future plotline (as well as the man who contacted the hitman for the president's daughter)?

Next, the whole "Jack Bauer is dying" subplot is dealt with.  Unfortunately, it was mostly a non-issue the moment it was revealed (a month or more ago) that there would be another season of 24 after this one.  Of course Jack wasn't going to die, and the repeated statement that a "risky" stem cell procedure was available only cemented the route taken to bring our hero back from the brink.  For some reason, I suspect that the show's producers envisioned this as 24's final season, but the continued success and demand for more 24 prevented them from going the route they may have originally devised.

Still, it was touching the way Bauer sought spiritual peace and forgiveness through a Muslim clergyman.  I suppose some might view this as pandering (how many Arab villains has 24 shown in the past?), but it was still a touching scene.

Finally, we have Tony Almeida alive and incarcerated, a clear sign (at least to me) that he'll be back next season.  If Jack Bauer could seek (and find) his spiritual forgiveness and peace of mind, then it seems logical that the next season of 24 may be exactly the right place for the tortured (but still beloved) ex-agent to find his.  Especially when the people he was hunting are still around.

So, all in all an entertaining season.  I still shake my head at the scuba-diving into the White House thing, and the way Almeida turned from bad to good to bad again nearly gave me whiplash, but give it to the people in front of and behind the cameras: They entertained the hell out of me for yet another twenty four hours.

I'm a fan of the Food Network, but this feature presents some interesting thoughts regarding the whole culture of celebrity chefs (among other things).

http://www.walletpop.com/specials/smartmoney/celebrity-chef-secrets?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fspecials%2Fsmartmoney%2Fcelebrity-chef-secrets

At least on the TV front.  I check the upcoming recordings and find that almost all my regular shows are over and done with (I have yet to see the finale of 24...the season has been good, although seriously wacky and I still shake my head at either the balls or sheer stupidity of the creative talent behind the camera that decided to have terrorists infiltrate the White House by swimming under it.  On the other hand, Tony Almeida!!!!!)

Lost finished last week, revealing for the first time what is perhaps the story behind the story, or rather the power(s) locked in battle behind the island.  Good versus evil for control of heaven or hell or purgatory?

The only shows that remain for me are Head Case (season finale this Friday) and Reno 911! (which looks like it has two or so more episodes before it too is gone).

Reno has been a pleasant surprise, even after the very unpleasant surprise of finding three of the regular cast were gone, supplanted by two newcomers who, frankly, haven't done all that much so far.

But on the bright side, the five original members who remain have been on fire, delivering alternately sharp and demented humorous jabs at just about everything.  Last week's episode, wherein we discover the reason Deputy Weigel is so very odd, was a highlight.

In these tough times, its great to find something that consistently makes you laugh.

From the Ausiello Files on Entertainment Weekly, a note regarding actress Elizabeth Mitchell's (Juliet) fate on Lost.

Thanks to other websites, I was aware that she had a prominent role in the reworked V series, and that when it was picked up there were rumblings that maybe she wouldn't be back to Lost.  Given that only the powers-that-be behind the show know what form the series' final season will take, there is little to do but speculate as to whether we've seen the last of Juliet.

This article points out that she will indeed appear in episodes of the show's last season, although given the whole Time Traveling thing, one wonders if she will be "alive" in the present or alive via flashbacks.

I'm hoping she figures directly into the series conclusion and continues to be a driving force with the other cast members.  Her character, first introduced in the show's third season, is one of the stronger add-ons to an already strong ensemble cast (the strongest would have to be Michael Emerson's Ben).

It would be a shame to reveal that she did indeed perish in the season finale.  Not to mention a major head-scratcher.  If she's dead, then shouldn't the others close by also be?

My humble opinion, of course.

Just saw this news item from Entertainment Weekly.  "Sarah Connors has been officially cancelled."

A rather light note, I'm sure we'll get more later.  Sad though.  My understanding is that Fox is giving Dollhouse another chance.  In a way, it makes sense: Fox owns Dollhouse and stands to profit from its further release.  They didn't own the Terminator franchise and therefore were only making whatever the show pulled in, ratings-wise.

Still, can't help but shake my head.  The better of the two shows is gone (although, I would quickly add, Whedon and company could well pull off a better second season of Dollhouse.  They've done some good stuff before).

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/05/bubble-show-upd.html

I'm not a terribly big fan of Tom Hanks, movie star, but Tom Hanks on SNL is another matter.  That guy is just flat out hilarious.

Case in point:

Ok, we move on from headless zombie fire ants, torture, and the war on drugs to something really important:

Last night's season finale of Lost.

Wow.

What can I say?  The show is absolutely fascinating, constantly keeping the viewer's interest while revealing solutions to previous mysteries and simultaneously building even more mysteries...

I don't really want to go into spoiler territory for those who haven't seen it yet, but suffice to say that my guess is the show will now build toward a big showdown between the forces of good and evil, and I suspect that good (if indeed the character of Jacob is good) has previously planted the seeds of his ultimate triumph in the leads within the episode.

They have all been touched (all but one unknowingly) by him, and his apparent fate at the end of this episode will, I feel, be revealed as something else entirely.

I'm so looking forward to the show's final season next year.

For those who want more in depth spoiler type info, this article was quite revelatory and interesting:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2009/05/13/lost_finale/

And while on the subject, a hilarious segment from the Jimmy Kimmel show, featuring Matthew Fox...

Look below for my comments regarding the season finale to Fringe.  Click on this link to Ken Tucker's far rosier view of the finale, as well as a bunch of notes from others who were also delighted with the ending.

Curiously, many felt that the writers of the show took elements from Stephen King's Talisman book in this episode, while to me this whole alternative universe stuff seems to be ripped off from DC Comic's multiverse concept.  Oh, and I still feel the show itself is way too X-Files...

But enough of my opinions, some far more positive comments can be found here:

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/05/fringe-season-f.html

I've been a big fan of the works of J. J. Abrams since first discovering Alias.  I've followed Lost almost religiously and had no problem jumping on board when Fringe arrived this season.

However, my feelings regarding this show are...variable.

On the one hand, I have by and large enjoyed almost every episode of the show.  Its plots are linear and at times very suspenseful, the production values are sky high, and the acting is solid (some may argue that protagonist Anna Torv's acting isn't good, I would counter argue that her sometimes blank slate character is exactly what the show's producers seem to want her to be).

So, what's not to like?

Unfortunately, quite a bit.  To begin, I'm very uncomfortable with the show's similarities to The X-Files.  Sure, there are differences, but we have the same structure of X-Files superimposed upon this show, with the only real differences being that the supertechnological baddies are industrial folks here on earth rather than from outer space.

Further, the subplot regarding what these supertechnological people are up to has been muddy, to say the least.  It seems one of their main foci is on building doorways into other universes (though I'm certain there are other works that presented the idea of multiple earths, I can't help but think that Abrams' and company have a fondness for the Gardner Fox scripted "The Flash of Two Earths", 1961, and the subsequent DC Comics that delved into the idea of Multiple Earths).

Anyway, the season finale builds on one baddie trying to meet face to face with Dr. William Bell, the head of Massive Dynamic, a man of mystery who may be living on an alternate earth.

At the very start of this unfortunately very predictable episode, I knew whose gravestone Walter Bishop was visiting (we were supposed to be surprised by that revelation at the episode's end).  About a quarter of the way through the episode I told my wife "I bet all Leonard Nimoy does in this episode is appear at the very end and say something like 'Hi.  I'm Dr. William Bell'."

Turns out I was right on both counts.

Still, unlike Dollhouse, Fringe has been more entertaining than not, although I can't help but feel it is the weakest of the three J. J. Abrams series I've followed to date.

Given that the show has been renewed for next season, I'm hoping for better things to come.

Even with the quibbling, I know I'll be there.

An amusing entry into David Letterman's Top 10 lists, with a presentation by Leonard Nimoy himself...

I said I wouldn't comment on Dollhouse anymore...but here goes anyway.

Just saw the last two episodes and, I must say, they may well have been the best thing ever to come from that show.  If only the rest of the first season episodes had been as good as these last two...

Sadly, they weren't.  We still have a show that feels like a first draft of something that needed more polish.  We still have a show that essentially presents us with automated prostitutes and is skittish about calling them just that.  We still have a show where the main character isn't really a character at all, where a big bad villain (played by Firefly's Alan Tudyk) proved the liveliest person there (in both his "hidden" and "real" incarnation).

But even with all the complaints, even with the feeling that the show was ultimately a let down, one can't help but wonder what might have been and, if by some miracle the show is renewed, what might be.

Perhaps all this trial and error could serve to make for a better second season of Dollhouse.  Perhaps.  Then again, should the show be renewed, there's always the possibility we'll see more of the same, a show with a tremendous pedigree but wallowing in unfulfilled expectations.

Let me get this out of the way:  I'm a HUGE fan of the TV show Lost.

I was there from day one, amazed at how the two hour premiere shot by like a screaming rocket.  When it was done, I couldn't believe two hours had passed.  From then on, I was hooked.

The second season, the one focusing way, way too much time on the "second half" of the doomed airliner, was a major let down.  But the show's creative staff dusted themselves off, realized the error of their ways, and have produced a pretty damn good product ever since.

But I've come to realize that the show, as it stands today just one week shy of its current season finale (and Lost's next season will be its last) has morphed into a very different show from its early years.  Before, we were intrigued by those strange (and deadly) people who resided on the island as well as the wreckage of structures that belonged to the mysterious Dharma group.  We gasped when a metal hatch was found in the middle of the jungle, and were chilled when a light came on from within.

The mysteries were simple yet deep, and they resonated.

Now, we've moved on to focus on the far more familiar science fictional concept of time travel.  Half the cast is stuck in the past while the other half is in the present, and the show is clearly building to its not so very far off conclusion.  The mysteries are fewer and the remaining questions seem built around how all the pieces will fit in the end.

Again, don't get me wrong: The show is still a treat, and I consider it the best show currently airing on TV (although it was neck to neck with Battlestar Galactica while that particular show was still airing).

But Lost has evolved into something different from the mysterious, eerie, and dangerous product it was in the beginning.

Glad to see I'm not all alone here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/05/comment.connor.terminator/index.html

I do believe, however, that some of the prose in this commentary is a little high handed.  Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may not be the best original TV show out there today (I would probably give that merit to Lost.  IMOHO, of course), but it is a damn good one that, as I've stated over and over again, deserves to return.

It is at times very daring, at times very emotional, and certainly surprisingly good.

Come on, Fox, give it another chance.

Ok, just got this yesterday and so far have only seen one episode (Errand of Mercy.  Why?  No real reason.  Just popped in the very last disk, originally interested in seeing Ellison's City on the Edge of Forever, then changed my mind and decided to watch a different episode).

The images are about as good as you'll find, but I don't think they've improved all that much on the previous DVD release (I could be wrong here, I have the original three seasons but I didn't have the time to pop them in and make a one on one comparison).

However, the "enchanced" effects are a treat.  At first I thought they were a little too gaudy, but if you compare them one on one with the original effects (something that's easy to do with the "angle" button on your remote) you realize that the new effects (at least on this episode) are very much in keeping with the spirit of the original special effects shots.

Of course, if you're familiar with Errand of Mercy, you know that the Klingons make their first appearance in that episode.  They fire upon the Enterprise but, in the original episode, their ships are never actually shown.  In the enhanced version, we do get to see the Klingon ships, but the people behind the new effects don't overdo it.

I know the enhanced episodes were already aired on TV, but this was the first time I was able to see them.  It was a pleasant experience, and I most certainly will watch more.  If anything, I'm very curious to see the enhanced version of season 2's The Doomsday Machine, perhaps my favorite episode of the original series.

By the way, if you're interested in watching episodes from the original Star Trek (with the "old" effects), click on the link below:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028/videogallery

I notice articles like this just about every year, at that magical time when Networks decide which of their shows deserve another year, and which don't.

Interestingly, when this article was first posted on CNN earlier today, the headline identified the main thrust of this piece being an effort to save Chuck.  Now, the headline from CNN's main page identifies the article as being about saving Chuck and Sarah Connors, even though the article itself remains devoted to Chuck.

Never did see much of that show, and what little I did see didn't do all that much to me.  Doesn't mean it isn't a good show, though!

Oh, and did I mention I hope Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns?!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/30/save.chuck.show/index.html

Well, fifty percent off the retail price anyway.

Amazon.com is selling the upcoming season one for $65 (It was previously listed at $72.99).

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Original-Season-Blu-ray/dp/B001TH16DS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1240572129&sr=8-1

Watching tuesday's episode, it occurs to me that the show truly is an unabashed X-Files...what?....clone?  Homage?  We have an FBI agent who investigates the weird.  True, we don't have aliens (yet anyway, that I know of!) but we're getting stranger and stranger cases with hints of possible threats from parallel worlds.

Pretty wild stuff, which would not be out of place in the X-Files.  Further, our main character has a boss who generally covers for her while the higher ups seem bent (or at least inclined) to shut her down.

The big difference, of course, are her aids: Dr. Walter Bishop, a possible lunatic (and, if I'm reading the signs right, most likely the architect of all the weirdness going on!) and Peter Bishop, his sarcastic son.  Someone on the net opined that Peter and Walter were possibly the same person, only one is from that other dimension.  Another theory is that the Walter we see in the show is NOT the same Walter who created all these bizarre experiments, that he's the one from another dimension.

If all this sounds confusing, it isn't.  Provided of course you tune in to this enjoyable show!

First in depth review of the new Caprica DVD (the pilot show featuring the years leading up to Battlestar Galactica).  I wrote before that the initial premise of the show didn't really interest me that much.  I also worried this show might be an attempt to cash in on BG.

Regardless, that's speculation on my part.  Click below and you'll get a review of the pilot by Thomas Rogers.  As it turned out, he didn't particularly like the show.

To be fair, this is only the first in depth review of Caprica I've read, and might well prove to be a minority opinion:

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2009/04/21/caprica/

Have been somewhat curious about this, and this is the first review I found of the release of season 1 of Star Trek, on Blu-Ray (as I state in the heading!).  Of significance: They included the original episode and the "remastered" episode version, featuring new special effects.

I'll probably pony up the money for it (and it is a rather steep fee, Amazon is listing this first season at a whopping $72.99!).

The article is from the Digital Bits:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews041709.html

scifiwire.com has some thoughts on the possible fate of eleven sci-fi (what else?) themed shows that are on the bubble for renewal...or worse.

Scroll down a bit and you'll find that the authors of the article think both Terminator and Dollhouse are done.

As I've made it painfully obvious in multiple postings, if this is the case I'll most certainly miss TTSCC.  Dollhouse not so much.

Terminator is/was a good show that, unfortunately, over time lost too much of its audience.  Was it due to the multiple changes in schedule?  Was it because the show's central plot proved too "cerebral" for people who were expecting more shootouts/action?

Who knows.  Regardless, I truly hope the show isn't done, yet am realistic enough to accept the fact that the bottom line for networks is viewership, and Terminator simply lost too much.

Anyway, the article, which focuses on several other shows as well, can be found here:

http://scifiwire.com/2009/04/will-these-11-sci-fi-show.php#more

Hot on the heels of the realization that DVR is just about the best invention to come to TV is the fact that the internet is quickly proving it is just as good (as if there were any doubt!).

Missed the last two weeks of 24 and was watching them back to back.  First episode goes by without a problem.  We start to watch the last episode (yesterday's), and after the first commercial, the show starts glitching.

Bad.

I fast forward a bit, hoping the glitching will stop.  No go.

(As I found out later, the Fox channel was having some big problems that weren't corrected until the show reached its last ten minutes or so).

Anyway, I head to the internet, go to imdb.com, and find a hulu link (you're getting all this?) to last night's episode.

And we the episode without a problem.  Good thing, too.  In the old days, we would have had little option but to skip this episode and watch next week's and hope we didn't miss much.

Man, we would have missed quite a bit.

24, you remain one crazy, crazy show.

...about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.

I promise.

No more.

Well, unless something really out there happens...like the show is renewed or something...

Seriously though, I feel for Whedon and the creative staff behind Dollhouse.  After watching many (but not all) the episodes aired so far I suspect this show simply was not fully thought through before filming began.

The warning signs were there early on.  Whedon and company filmed a pilot and then, if memory serves, were forced by the studios to go back to the drawing board.  At one point, filming was completely shut down for two weeks while the writers got together to tweak whatever it was they were working on (the season's direction?  The new pilot?).

The word of studio interference became ominous, in retrospect, when I found out that this interference was suddenly gone and Whedon was in full control.  Perhaps it was a case of the studio no longer caring what happened to Dollhouse rather than that they suddenly developed confidence in Whedon making the show better on his own.

Dollhouse's latest episode, Spy in the House of Love, presented both the good and the not so good about the show.  We get star Eliza Dushku in a dominatrix outfit right off the bat (the show loves to display her in outrageous and sexy outfits...some of them bordering on creepy).  We have a somewhat interesting story regarding the discovery of a spy in the Dollhouse and the need to smoke him/her out.  The story is then presented by focusing on individual "dolls" and their activities through the course of this story.

Unfortunately, much of what follows is nonsensical.  Basically, one of the "dolls" breaks into the NSA and finds a document that points out the traitor.  Echo, by the end, points out that the document is a plant and fingers the true spy.  The end.

But why oh why does the computer geek have an office covered in windows which allows the "dolls" below to see ominous flickering lights and hear the screams of torment and, finally, actually see blood splatter against this glass?  Couldn't this super-rich organization have put his office somewhere else, out of view of the dolls?

And how about the fact that the blank Echo is the one who presents herself to said computer geek and tells him to "fix" her so she can find the spy?  Shouldn't the staff be a little worried that one of their blanks is showing such initiative while in its most basic/blank state?

And what's up with the head of the Dollhouse having a fling with one of the dolls?  Can't the show have the courage to finally -finally- state flat out that the Dollhouse's main function is that of fullfilling sexual fantasies?  (It would certainly explain Ms. Dushku's wild outfits from episode to episode)

Anyway, I've devoted too much time on this and I suspect the hour is late for Dollhouse.  According to IMDB, there are three more episodes to go.  Unlike The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I won't miss this show if/when its cancelled.

Perhaps then Whedon and company can sit back, take a breath, and refocus their creative energies.  I have no doubt they'll come back strong.

But careful where you play it...the language, as they say, may not be appropriate for everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGn7ItEIEwI&feature=channel_page

True to form, another powerful episode.

I don't want to get too into it, as I don't want to ruin all the surprises, but suffice it to say that the conclusion to the second season was filled with tension and some crackling dialogue (the interchange between Sarah and Shirley Mason's Catherine Weaver alone was worth it).

And the very last few minutes!

A trio of familiar faces appear, shockingly I might add, and the proverbial pot has been stirred.

I'd say I eagerly await next season, but as I've mentioned before, another season of this show is seriously in doubt.  Still, I hope Fox gives Sarah Conner Chronicles another chance.  If they do, I truly hope they place the show in a better time slot.

It most certainly deserves both.

I've stated before I'm a fan of Head Case, Starz' foul-mouthed yet hilarious comedy show involving a cast of self-absorbed fools (the biggest of which is our lead, a psychologist to the stars).

Reno 911! came first in presenting a foul-mouth yet hilarious group of self-absorbed (though perhaps not quite that self-absorbed) fools.  At first blush, the show is an obvious parody of Cops.  However, once one got a handle of the characters, you realize what a bunch of foul-mouthed losers they are, and you can't help (well, I can't help anyway) to laugh at their shenanigans.

Last week the Comedy Channel debuted the first episode of the show's sixth season, and I was shocked to find that three of the show's regulars were gone.  Most missed are Wendi McLendon-Covey's Deputy Johnson and Carlos Alazraqui's Deputy Garcia.  No offense to Mary Birdsong and her Deputy Kimball, but she was a late comer (arriving, I believe, in the third season) and while she had many good scenes, never quite engraciated herself (if I could use such a word to describe the maniacs that make up this show) as the other two.

I've searched around the internet for some kind of explanation as to why these characters were gone, and it appears there might have been some falling out among the cast members.  Still, both Wendi McLendon-Covey and Carlos Alazraqui (at least to this date) haven't bad-mouthed anyone (indeed, McLendon-Covey's comments on MySpace in particular have been very nice).

Anyway, they're gone and the first two episodes of Reno 911! have aired and...the show is still quite funny, although I really, really miss the characters.  They've introduced two new Deputies, but so far they haven't really distinguished themselves.  The beauty of Reno 911! is that the people within the show have character, and so far these two new Deputies haven't shown themselves to be anything but "another deputy".

Still, I've loved this show for a while, even found some of the Reno 911! Miami movie humorous (though that was undoubtably their low point), and am willing to give it a try.

So the show came back last night (and, luckily, I had the DVR set to record the local news as American Idol ran about 7 minutes long), and I'm generally happy with it.

However...

The main plot elements in the show, a serial murderer who makes a fashion statement with his victims was lifted from J. D. Robb's novel Creation in Death and the kid found in a soon to be torn building seemed lifted from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel The Cabinet of Curiosities.

Otherwise, great episode!

Seriously though, I enjoyed the episode despite the somewhat...um...familiar trappings.

As I said regarding the Satriani/Coldplay plagiarism case, I suppose no one is original anymore.

One gets the feeling the show is indeed winding down.  Characters have been killed off (a prominent one gets it in this second to last episode of the second season, in a manner so casual and offhanded one can't help but be shocked...yet to tell the truth, I see a way to bring the character back, should there be another season of the show).

Still, the show has been quite spectacular these past few weeks and, if this is indeed the end of it after next week's season finale, then they've done themselves proud, even if the audience wasn't there to see their work.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the show will continue.

Of all the nights in the week, probably the greatest to use the DVR.

First up, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Continues to be interesting, exciting, and consistent.  A good, solid sci-fi show with some good acting and intriguing concepts.  Let me repeat my well worn lament: I truly hope they renew this show.  It deserves it.

Dollhouse: After last week's first "no-studio-interference" episode, I expected good things to come.  This week's follow up to last week's episode, unfortunately, was a big, BIG let down.  I gave up on the show once before, before giving it one more chance with last week's episode (again, on the basis of the fact that there was no studio interference).  What I saw then was encouraging and I thought maybe, just maybe, the show would work.

Unfortunately, this week's episode, "Echoes", was a waste.  We get almost all the characters acting like children (they're under the control of some runaway drug) and Echo is having visions of her previous life....and its all so very, very tedious.

About half-way through the episode I knew how the drug plot would be resolved (considering every main character was under the influence of the drug, it was obvious that the thing would simply fade away on its own), and Echo's previous life seemed more silly than interesting (I mean, is that all she was?  Some post-hippy animal rights crusader whose boyfriend gets shot while they infiltrate a lab?  Really?!)

Head Case: If you have Starz, watch this show.  A great, hilarious "R" rated comedy involving a bunch of sleazy, self-absorbed degenerates.  Great stuff!

Ok, so I swore off the show a couple of weeks ago after yet another (very) lackluster episode.  Then I hear that this past episode was made without the "suits" interference.

Give it another chance.

Why not?  It's just one more hour.  If it still doesn't work, all I've lost is that one hour.

Well, it worked.  "Man on the Streets" was the very first episode of Dollhouse that I truly felt was good.  It featured a meaty plot that surprised you and, when you least expected it, actually touched you (I'm talking about the computer billionaire...what started as a very icky character became something else all together.  Like Agent Ballard, I too believe he is a predator, but by episode end I could understand the why he would look to using the Dollhouse (btw, first time the usage of the exclusive agency made some kind of sense).  Anyway, the disparate plot threads coalesced, and I had a stronger feel for what Whedon and company might be going after.

Count me as cautiously optimistic.  I'll give the show another look next week.  If this keeps up, looks like I've (re)found something to watch...

Finally (two days later) got around to seeing the conclusion.

Wow.

For those who haven't seen the show yet, I'll try to be really light on spoilers.

First really, really gripping and intense...then, after all the initial excitement (and action) it seems to flounder a bit, only to pick up (delivering one after another emotional whallop) before offering a curious conclusion that hints at mythological circularity.

A great series has ended, although I'll be the first to say its obvious where they started and where they ended weren't thought out ("They have a plan", one of the big lines in the series for a few years, never amounted to much.  I'd have to say the whole "Hera" subplot also didn't matter quite as much, as well, more an excuse to get from point "a" to "b" rather than a reason for the series).

Some thought the whole Kara "Starbuck" subplot also either obvious or silly or whathaveyou.  I was fine with it.  She was an imperfect soul who was offered another chance to fullfill her destiny, and her destiny was that of a shepherd herding the flock.  As such, she never was a part of the flock itself, and if you think about it, that was her defining characteristic throughout the show's years:  The benevolent (if at times crass) outsider.

Congratulations to all involved.  This was a great series and ended well.

And having said all that...I'm not sure about these "prequels" and shows taken from "the other side".  Seems like an attempt to keep the money coming in rather than build on a great show.

I'll keep my eye out, but I honestly don't think too much about this.

I truly don't know how the ratings on this show are, although the first week it was back (and moved to Friday) were quite abysmal and word was out that the show wouldn't have a third season.

A shame.  The latest episode ("The Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter") was another damn good piece of entertainment.

Look, the show isn't The Prisoner or Battlestar Galactica or Masterpiece Theatre.

It's a solid action/adventure drama that cleverly tiptoes around the movie continuity and creates its own interesting reality.

And, at the risk of sounding like a scratched record, it would be too bad if it should be cancelled.

Burn Notice:

Enjoyed the season finale.  I'm curious if the nature of the main character's "burn" will remain as presented here: Ultimately unimportant.  For two seasons Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) has been intent on finding who "burned" him, ie, had him stripped of all spy credentials and "locked" into staying in Miami.  Without giving too much away, another character noted how he was burned (a very nefarious scheme) but he opined that, in the end, it didn't matter who exactly did it, that you take it from there.

If the show continues down that route, I'll be pleased.  Sometimes you don't need specific answers, and some of the speculation on the net (his mother burned him, Fi (his girlfriend) burned him, his missing father burned him, etc. etc.) seemed rather silly.

24:

Plot points in this series are like the weather in Miami.  You don't like 'em, just wait a minute or two.  I already noted how difficult it was to accept the idea that some crazed African Dictator could scuba dive in the Potomac, drill a hole in some concrete, and, presto, infiltrate the White House (and take the President hostage!).  Well, in this past episode's first fifteen minutes, that whole plot line was summarily dealt with and we were off and running to our THIRD major threat to the United States, this time in the form of Jon Voight.  Bauer, to boot, is framed for a murder and on the run.

It may not make a lick of sense, but I'll give the series this much: It moves.

Saw the first two episodes, skipped the "bodyguard/singer" episode (based on what I read about it afterwards, looks like I did the right thing), then caught the latest episode (the art heist), saw the preview of the next episode (infiltrating a "David Koresh" type religious cult), and have concluded....

...the show just isn't for me and deleted it from my DVR "to record" list.

I gave the show what I felt was plenty of time to hook me, but if after seeing those three full episodes, all my original opinions of the show remain.  Good pedigree behind the scenes but a curiously flat series that seems intent on emulating Alias but has a main character who, when all is said and done, is an empty shell (yeah, yeah, I know that they're moving toward her retaining her memories and coming to realize her situation).

Further, the computer programmer guy is really annoying (in fact, for me the show stops dead everytime he comes on the screen), the organization behind "Dollhouse" makes no sense (why not simply hire a staff experienced in covert missions?  Why go the extra mile of having walking blanks "impregnated" with memories, especially when these "dolls" have a habit of malfunctioning during their job.  Yeah, I can see all those canny millionaires jumping at the opportunity to hand off their most delicate, expensive job to a company that trusts glitchy blanks).

Just about the only intriguing element in the show is that there's a murderous "doll" out there playing games with our main character.  However, that particular plot element is simply not enough for me to stick around.

Too bad, really.  I truly wanted the show to succeed, but its just not doing it for me.

It seems so long ago…hell, it was a long time ago.

That first season of 24.  They should have called it 12, because, if memory serves, that’s all the rope Fox network was willing to give the fledgling new series.  If things didn’t work out and ratings were poor, the series would be pulled and no more money wasted.  Ironically, that’s why the first half of that first season proved to be so damned good.  The writers focused on making twelve episodes, and offered a resolution at the end of the twelve episodes.  Jack Bauer saved his kidnapped wife and daughter while taking out the terrorists who held them (but not everyone involved in the story's larger plot).

Sadly, the second half of the season proved far more messy, featuring almost right off the bat a very silly amnesia subplot.  To be fair, the show roared to a great close with the revelation of a mole within CTU and the death of a character you didn’t think they’d dare get rid of.

Subsequent seasons seemed to build on that first, offering the same general structure, a “big” plot line that is resolved (by and large) at the halfway point and another major plot taking its place.

With this season, we’ve reached that halfway point.  The major first plot, involving an attempt by a terrorist group (what other groups are there?) from forcing the President of the USA from taking out a corrupt fictional African country’s regime.

There have always been a lot of whoppers the writers of the show expect their audience to swallow throughout the show's entire run, but approaching the two hour half-way point of this season, I was even more leery than ever before.  The preview of this two hour episode showed the leader of the African country very improbably scuba diving his way into the White House, then (possibly) taking the President hostage.

As I thought more and more about it, I thought that 24 and I had finally hit the breaking point.  As blah as last season was, I was willing to forgive and forget.  After all, Tony Almeida was (also very improbably) back, but he was always a great character and didn’t deserve to be bumped off in a previous season (computer whiz Chloe seems to be, along with Jack Bauer himself, the only other “unkillable” character in the series, though I wouldn’t put her continued good health past the sadists who write this show!).  The change in scenery, to Washington D.C., was also a plus.  Add to that an FBI department that were virtual dopplegangers of the L.A. CTU, and I was there.

But, as I said, certain things started leaving a bad taste.  The writers seem determined to prove that “aggressive interrogations” (or, as they're too squeamish to admit, torture) are a good thing.  They keep having characters who are against torture abruptly realize that, gosh and golly, maybe there’s a place for such distasteful practices.

Bear in mind, I accepted the series’ central conceit that Bauer keeps stumbling into “ticking time bomb” scenarios and has to be very, very aggressive with the badguys.  But this is fiction, and I'm willing to accept that for what it is.

But getting all this preachy “pro-torture” and “anti-civil rights” dialogue gets tiresome.  And, even more disturbing…terrorists are getting into the White House...by swimming in?!?

As I feared, the first of the two hours was painful.  More pro-torture arguments, more weeny “liberal” types arguing against it.  Then the terrorists get on a boat, and our FBI agent very, VERY improbably jumps onto said (slow moving) boat instead of simply calling her FBI boss and saying “Hey Charlie, they’re on a slow moving boat on the Potomac and you’re in a fast moving helicopter on your way…you should catch up to them WAY before they get anywhere.”

Instead, she jumps on the boat and, in the process, loses her gun (of course) and soaks her phone (of course, redux).

And then there’s what happens after.  FBI agent is discovered, jumps off boat, in seconds swims to shore (if the terrorists were that close to the shore to begin with, did they really need to go out in a boat to subsequently scuba dive into the White House?).  Bauer gets this close to forcing the bad guy to reveal the terrorists’ target (after some delicious torture), and by that point we reached the end of the first hour.

I had enough.  Had the show finally, finally jumping the proverbial shark?

I didn’t watch the other hour until yesterday, and I was truly thinking 24 and I were done.  But as ridiculous as the first hour was, as convoluted and stupid several characters were, as un-fucking-believable as the circumstances were that we were being forced to swallow…

…I’ll be damned if the second hour wasn’t some very exciting stuff.

You still got me, 24.  You still got me.

Burn Notice

Great, great fun.  Only bad thing: The show seems to end so damn soon!  Next week is the second season's finale, and this season has been a blast.  Witty, funny, and never taking itself too terribly seriously, with some great acting (gotta love the interaction of the four main leads, including our hero's mother (Sharon Gless)!).  Add Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) to the mix and you've got one hour of sheer bliss.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

To me, this show remains a fun watch.  The last two episodes, "Desert Cantos" and "Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep" have been part of a larger storyline that, I suspect, will eventually bring Sarah Connor face to face with ex-Garbage singer Shirley Manson's T-1001.  I'm intrigued by this potential match up, because I suspect that Manson's character isn't all she seems...and one wonders if maybe, just maybe, she isn't as evil as we've been lead to believe.  I hope the ratings of this show improve.  It's solid.

Dollhouse

Saw the second episode and, while it was an improvement over the first, I remain very ambivalent about this series.  The show's pedigree is good, but the show itself has many problems, not least of which is the premise itself, which wants us to root for an empty shell.  Worse, with the second episode I was getting stronger flashbacks to the much more entertaining Alias.  Alias worked because despite all the "characters" the heroine of the show played, we always knew who she was behind the makeup, and we rooted for her because of this.  Here we have the characters of Alias without the undisguised character to fall back on and root for.

And I admit I'm resisting the episode that just aired...featuring our heroine joining some kind of rock act.  Ack.

Battlestar Galactica

Two weeks ago we saw one of the most disappointing episodes of the show's run.  This past week, however, we got a far more solid story, filled with tension and surprise at almost every corner.  The episodes big reveal, that Starbuck's father was one of the original cylons, wasn't too much of a surprise, although it was handled well.  What was a surprise was realizing that the "evil" cylons, along with Boomer, had planned the events of the last few episodes to kidnap a very important and unique (or so they believe) person from Galactica.

And to add to all that drama, its apparent that the Galactica is on its last legs.  I suspect the ship will go down fighting in a spectacular manner.

Even when the show has its hicups, it remains the best of the best dramas on TV today.  Only a few more episodes to go.  I already miss the her.

I like this show, I really do.

But I suspect that after so many years (7 seasons!), plot points that wouldn't have bothered me so much before are becoming more and more bothersome.

The latest?

In the last episode, Bauer and Walker, in hot pursuit of a baddie carrying his girlfriend (who has turned and the baddie knows she's turned), are surrounded and stopped by the local Washington DC police.  The police hold Bauer and Walker until all is cleared up.  Bauer and Walker get back in their car and continue the chase, this time trying to catch up to the baddie...they're doing this alone.

My question is...why not use the police to help accomplish this?  I mean, the officers are there, aren't they?  They have cars...with wheels even, and carry weaponry.  They're efficient, as they've just stopped Bauer.  Now, maybe there's another terrorist event going on that they have to rush off to (John McClane could be involved in a shootout down by the Lincoln Memorial).  But still, seems pretty lame to let all these perfectly capable police run off when they might be useful to getting your baddie.

Back in 1989 James Cameron released, to much anticipation, the film The Abyss.  His previous two films were the absolutely terrific original Terminator and Aliens.

If memory serves, the film was generally well received with one major caveat.  Though I no longer recall which film critic said so, he hit the nail right on the head by saying the movie was like a sprint runner running his finest race, several lengths ahead of everyone else, and then, just as he's feet away from the finish line, stumbles and falls.

I agreed with the critic.  I enjoyed The Abyss but felt the ending was a mess.  The extended cut of the film, while an improvement, still didn't work for me.

Which is not to say that Battlestar Galactica, with four episodes remaining, might suffer a similar fate.  However, if Deadlock, the latest episode to air, is an example of things to come, I worry.

How I worry.

Let me be clear here: Like many others, I feel BG is quite possibly the best TV show currently out there.  It's had its ups and downs, as any television show going on its fourth season must surely have, but the highs are higher than just about anything I've ever seen, and whatever lows there are are usually quickly over.

But Deadlock may well be the first full episode of the series that I thought failed on just about every level.

Perhaps the most irritating thing about the episode was that we get so many (way too many) shots of Adama looking oh-so-seriously at the work being done on his ship.  Once, twice, even three times would have been more than enough (and three might be a stretch).  But we got shots of Adama looking over his ship (if the IMDB synopsis is to be believed) a total of SEVEN times.  Not only is this overkill, but it smells of filler material, like the episode wasn't long enough in its original cut.

Ellen Tigh, who was so fascinating and tragic in the previous episode, who seemed above all the petty human emotions of Dean Stockwell's Brother Cavil, does a complete about face for most of this episode and becomes a spoiled spurned lover who, by episode's end, does another about face and rises above her spurned status (it was emotional whiplash, I tells ya).

And how exactly did Tigh and Boomer find the Galactica and its fleet?  Never explained.  Last episode they're fleeing the last of the "evil" Cylons, the next they've arrived.

The show's subplot, involving Gaius and his attempts to feed the hungry masses, also comes up short (and perplexing).  His ultimate resolution, to get "bigger guns" involves him somehow convincing Adama that its a good idea (following a mutiny) to give his group said weaponry.  The writing during this part of the episode was confusing: I still can't quite understand what he said to convince Adama this was a good idea.

And don't get me started on that strange bit of dialogue between the President and Six (what exactly did that accomplish?  More filler?) and how Galen was one of the "aye" votes to leave the Galactica (didn't seem in character for a man who spent his life fixing this ship...you would have thought he and Tigh would be certain votes to stay).

The conclusion of the episode, with Six losing her child, also came off flat.  Again, I don't quite understand the conclusions we're to draw from this.

All right, enough bitching.  We've still got 4 episodes to go.  Here's hoping we'll see something better to come.

In case you haven't heard, Paramount is going to release the Star Trek movies, and the original series, on Blu Ray.  Sounds interesting, although the price is quite steep (season 1 of the original series will feature both the original version and the "upgraded special effects" version...for $118!!  Yikes!)

More on this can be found here:

DVD Review http://www.dvdreview.com/news/viewnews.asp?id=10856

I'm a fan of Joss Whedon.  I generally like his work, though I won't pretend to be as fanatical of his Buffy/Angel/Firefly stuff as others (I do, however, have the complete DVDs of Angel and Firefly).

When his stuff cooks, its damn good.

Sadly, this is not the case with the premiere of Dollhouse.  We should have seen it coming, of course.  The show was delayed and the original premiere episode was scrapped and reworked/refilmed into what was presented Friday.  I won't rank this as one of the worst things I've ever seen, but I can't say there was much there to draw me into seeing more of this show...other than the Whedon name.

For now, that's more than enough.

Let's see where it goes from there.

Just caught the new episode yesterday (thank you, DVR), and found it quite diverting.

Sadly, it seems I'm in a minority as I've read elsewhere the ratings of this episode were quite poor (there was a bump afterwards, however, for Dollhouse.  I'll see that one when I get a chance...thank you once again, DVR).

Regardless, the news of the poor ratings for TSCC provide a strong hint that the show may be on its last legs, which is unfortunate.  I loved the first Terminator film, found the second lacking (despite the much, much bigger budget and effects), and the third only "ok".  I approached the TV show with some trepidation, wondering where exactly they could go with this by now somewhat tired plot.

They surprised me by going into several interesting, and some not so interesting, directions, but it seemed the writing staff knew when a plot thread was fizzling and did something about it.  Sure, the show hasn't reached the levels of a Battlestar Galactica, writing-wise (the biggest howler in this new episode was the fact that a gun was fired in a hospital room, but apparently no one outside the room noticed!), but it is a fun show and, if it weren't for the deadly ratings, would be worthwhile to be renewed.

In my humble opinion, of course.

Perhaps THE best TV show on the air today.

This episode, concluding the current story arc, was an intense, white knuckle ride that featured an ending that was in turn powerful, tragic, uplifting, and sad, all at once.

The show's final episodes are airing now.  If you haven't caught the show, do yourself a favor and do so.  But I urge you to start from the beginning and work your way to the end.

I envy you if its your first time doing so.

Whenever I hear the name J. J. Abrams associated with any movie or television show, I'm instantly interested.  It started with Alias, easily one of the best modern spy shows that aired on network television (Burn Notice is a close second, in my humble opinion).  Plot twists occurred fast and furiously, though I'd be the first to admit the show worked hard to get some traction following the absolutely jaw-dropping post-SuperBowl 2003 episode "Phase One".

When Lost premiered, my wife and I were impressed enough with the Abrams name to give the then new show a try, even if the particulars we read about the series didn't intrigue us all that much.  That changed when we saw the show's premiere and the rest of that first season.  To say were were blown away is an understatement.  Even though the show's second season proved a major let down, we stuck with it, and were pleased that the subsequent seasons have been knockouts.  To this day, Lost remains one of my favorite hours of television.

So naturally, when we heard about Abrams' latest TV show, Fringe (no relation at all to my own The Dark Fringe, alas), I was there, eager and waiting.

After thirteen episodes, I have to say that I'm rather deflated.

No, the show isn't a total bust.  I absolutely love the interaction between John Noble's very eccentric and/or downright insane Dr. Walter Bishop and Joshua Jackson's smart-ass Peter Bishop.  I also like Anna Torv as the show's protagonist, the tough but also fragile Agent Olivia Dunham.  The show's main theme, that there are some veeery crazy characters out there messing with some extremely dangerous cutting edge technologies is intriguing.

The problem with Fringe is that after only thirteen episodes, it feels like the creative team is running out of gas.  And this was only too obvious following the most recent episode, February 3rd's "The Transformation".

To begin, we once again have someone on an airplane who has been poisoned with a deadly toxin.  In the show's premiere episode, the infected person spread his toxin to all the passengers on board an airplane and, as a result, they melted into a gory goo.  In this episode, a man on an airplane discovers he's carrying a deadly toxin.  Before he can arrest its effects, he mutates into some kind of hybrid porcupine/werewolf (!!) and goes berserk, eventually attacking and killing the plane's pilots and sending the craft crashing to the ground.

If that bit of repetition weren't enough, we also get to see Dunham yet again entering Dr. Bishop's isolation tank to reconnect with the memories of her dead (?) lover, a fellow agent who, until the rather trite (and obvious) final reveal, was thought to be a traitor.  This repetition is particularly galling because going into the isolation tank was originally described as very dangerous, even life threatening.  Thus, Dunham previously entered the tank because the agent's back was to the wall and there was no other choice.  To emphasize the risk, Bishop's son and a fellow agent looked on, just in case things went bad.

This time around, however, Dunham waltzes into the tank as if it's a walk in the park and with only Dr. Bishop watching over her.  So is it dangerous or not?  After this episode I'm wondering why Dunham doesn't go into the tank every week to figure out how to deal with the latest threat to humanity.

Even worse, we are once again subjected to Dunham's sister and her sister's daughter.  It seems Dunham's sister has run away/left her husband and is now living (along with her daughter) at Dunham's apartment.  Where oh where is this particular plot point going?  For the life of me I have no idea and could care less.  Talk about an uninteresting side story.

But at least this episode didn't feature Sanford Harris, a character who was hinted at in the premiere of the show.  Harris, you see, is a man Dunham accused of sexual harassment once upon a time.  Well, a few episodes ago he finally showed up and, surprise surprise, the government tasked him to oversee Dunham's group and make sure they're not wasting taxpayer dollars.  Even though this show deals with the fantastic, in this day and age it strains credulity to think that no one in the government thought it might be a very bad idea to put a female government worker in close proximity to the man she accused of sexual harrasment.

Now, I've written an awful lot of negatives about the show and I'm certain I've given the impression I hate the whole thing.  But that isn't the case.  Even after all these negatives, I like enough elements of the show to hope that it finds its footing and really takes off.

At least before the viewing public does the same.