 In celebration of “Scrubs” returning to NBC for its seventh and final season, here’s a look at the brief but entertaining few moments I was able to spend on a teleconference with star Zach Braff and Bill Lawrence. The guys spent an hour and a half on the line, answering one question after another from reporters from hither and yon, and I was lucky enough to be the second person to get on the phone with them, but to give you an idea of how many people were on the call, by the time I got my second shot at the mike, we were at the hour and a half mark. In fact, I was the very last question of the event…but we’ll get to that in a moment. FIRST TIME AROUND –
Bullz-Eye: Bill, what’s the status of Aloma Wright (Nurse Laverne Roberts) on the show? I know the rumor had gone around for awhile that she would be coming back and playing Laverne’s alcoholic sister, but now I’ve heard… Bill Lawrence: Well here’s the scoop, man, and you can totally help me out with that because, you know, I have a feeling that I’m going to get a lot crap from our fan base. But, uh…so I wanted to get this story out, which is basically when I killed Aloma last year, I would never take work away from a, you know, an actress that we consider part of the family. We thought last year would be the last season. So when I killed Laverne, it was because we basically said, “Hey, what’s a good dramatic arc for the end of the year, since we’re kind’ve ending up the show?” And once we got there, we had already written the stuff, but we had been told by our studios that the show would continue for another year. So I promised her that she would come back. I don’t want people to get mad at me. She returns as a nurse named Shirley; she looks slightly different, but she still looks like the same actress. But the only thing we’re doing is that only Zach’s character thinks the two of them look alike. Zach Braff: I wanted them…there was talk – and we haven’t done this yet – that she would be a Coquettish atheist. BL: And then there’s a lot of talk, too, that because she’s a new character, some of the writers think that we should kill her yet again…but, this time, nobody cares. ZB: Yeah. “Did you hear Shirley got run over by a car?” BL: It was, “She got hit by a bus. Oh, hey, do they have any donuts?” BE: (Laughs) BL: So she will be back, and I apologize to people. And, hopefully, they will let it go, and she will be back as a…you know, I figured “Bewitched” had two different guys play her husband, so I can have someone as a joke come back as a different character.
BE: Zach, is there any side of J.D. that hasn’t been explored in the show yet that you’d like to see explored in the final season? ZB: I…that’s a good question. I feel like there’s…I mean, seven years worth of sides of J.D.. I don’t know. I think we…I like it when we explore his love of Donald Faison (Turk). I think we can always have more of that. BL: Also, the…Zach’s already doing it, even though he’s not saying it, which is that I think that this show…the ending of this show will be unsatisfying for people if they don’t feel like his character has finally grown up, you know? And, you know, one of the things that’s tough about being lucky enough to go on this long is that you can only do the young kind of man child who hasn’t matured yet for so long before Zach’s coming to me and being, like, “Bill, I’m…you know, my character is 30 years old now. I think he might not wear cartoon t-shirts or jammies to bed.” And, so, we’re trying to make him a little more mature. BE: Thanks. After Braff and Lawrence had been answering questions for an hour straight…including several from Jewish publications, which amused Braff to no end… the conference moderator – that would be the lovely Carol Janson – came on the line and asked the operator how many questions were left in queue. When it was confirmed that a mere seven questions remained, Ms. Janson asked the guys if they were willing to answer the final seven questions…and, God bless ‘em, they were game. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and Interviews and TV Comedies and External Entertainment and External TV and Fall TV Preview Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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If there’s one thing Bullz-Eye and Premium Hollywood readers alike know about me by now, it’s that I’m way too polite for my own good…but even *I* couldn’t find anything more polite to say about “Cavemen” in my Fall TV preview than lines like this… “Given how people reacted to the mere idea of transforming a series of Geico commercials into a 30-minute sitcom, you’d think that the producers would’ve set their sights on being the best damned comedy of the new season. Instead, they’ve got a heavy-handed and horribly-failed attempt at poking fun at the foolishness of racism, one which will almost certainly have the NCAAP foaming at the mouth.” …and this: “Any series which falls back on a parody of ‘Baby Got Back’ in 2007 deserves whatever horrific fate may befall it. If ‘Cavemen’ lasts more than a few episodes, it’ll either be because the writers have figured out what went so horribly, horribly wrong, or, more likely, because people are perversely fascinated by how incredibly bad it is.”
Do I feel bad about making these statements? No, because, hand on heart, the pilot really was that bad. But after having the opportunity to speak to Joe Lawson, who wrote and created the original GEICO commercials that inspired “Cavemen,” I was surprised to find that I was actually kind of looking forward to seeing more of the series…and, honestly, I didn’t necessarily expect that. I’ve got a pretty open mind, and I was planning to keep it open while watching the premiere episode (which, you may have heard, will not be the pilot episode that most of us critics ripped to shreds), but was I actually looking forward to watching it? Not so much. But as you’ll see from this conversation between Lawson and myself, he manages to explain away the pilot without actually defending it, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment in and of itself, while also coming across as a guy who really does think he’s got a good sitcom on his hands. We’ve only got one thing left to mention in the preface, and that’s that a few quotes from this piece have already appeared in an article for The Virginian-Pilot, since the only reason Lawson and I came to chat in the first place was because of his connection to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia…but The Pilot only wanted 300 words, and since I had just much good stuff left over, it seemed like a shame to waste it! Okay, read on…! Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and Interviews and TV Comedies and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Fall TV Preview and Pilots Comments: 4 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 I caught the pilot of “Dirty Sexy Money” and I really enjoyed it. Peter Krause (”Six Feet Under”) has an intrinsic watchability about him and he’s proven he can be the centerpiece for a compelling series. He plays Nick George, a lawyer who unwillingly replaces his deceased father as the legal counsel for the super-rich Darling family in New York City. Nick grew up with the family, so he has history with each and every member of the family. The show is quite funny, but there is an underlying darkness to it (which is readily apparent by the end of the pilot) that gives it a certain depth. With so much history and so many secrets, the writers have a lot to work with, so I think the show has loads of potential. For those that missed the pilot, ABC.com is streaming at their website. Filed under: TV and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and External TV and Fall TV Preview Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Like any good drama, “Ugly Betty” said its springtime goodbyes in grand fashion. Betty’s father was left in Mexico awaiting his immigration papers, Henry left for Arizona to be with a now-pregnant Charlie, Wilhelmina was busy planning her wedding, Claire Meade broke out of prison, Daniel and Alexis became Crash Test Dummies, and Amanda discovered that she might be the daughter of Fey Sommers. And let’s not forget about poor Santos who, while trying to play hero during a robbery at the local convenience store, is shot dead… or is he? Quite a lot to wrap your head around in only three months, and though the season two premiere doesn’t quite tie up all the loose ends left lying around, it does show great initiative in getting to the point.
The first episode of the new season picks up three weeks later, and Betty is stressing out more than ever. When she’s not being hounded at home by cousin Justin’s complaints about attending summer camp, she’s forced to deal with much bigger problems – like the fact that Wilhelmina is using Daniel’s hospital stay as a means to take over at Mode. Daniel is doing just fine, but when Alexis awakens from her coma thinking she’s still Alex, well, it yields some interesting results. Amanda, meanwhile, has put on a few pounds while stressing about the whole Fey Sommers debacle – a point made only more worrisome when Mark suggests that Bradford Meade might be her birth father. This will surely become a major subplot throughout the rest of the season, but admirers of Becki Newton needn’t worry – the actress ditches the fat suit before the next episode. The other players help to keep things light in episode two; namely Michael Urie as Wilhelmina’s lapdog, Mark – making the most of his new promotion when he’s put in charge of the summer interns. Trumping the witless peons as the only intern worth his salt is teenage fashionista Justin, a veritable carbon copy of Mark who works well enough with his older counterpart that one can only hope the creators will find another reason to get the pair on screen together. How a kid Justin’s age got a job at a prestigious magazine like Mode is beyond me, but he serves as a welcome replacement when Amanda is too busy to play along. And what of Santos? Well, you’ll have to tune in to find out exactly what’s happening on that front, but let’s just say it’s a bittersweet moment that may leave viewers perplexed as to why it was even included. Will you necessarily like their decision? Probably not, but though the series has never been flawless, one thing’s for certain: the magic is still there. And to think, Freddy Rodriguez doesn’t join the cast until week three. Filed under: TV and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and External TV and Fall TV Preview Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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I might have some bad news for anyone who walked out of my Fall TV Preview thinking that “Bionic Woman” was going to be one of the best shows of the new season. Not that I’d blame you for thinking that, given that I offered the very dangerous claim that “it’s hard to imagine this not being the ‘Heroes’-like break-out series of the 2007 season.” But now that I’ve watched the recast and slightly-retooled pilot, I find that I’m not nearly as excited as I was when I watched the original pilot…and, ironically, the reason why doesn’t really involve the things that have been changed!
But, okay, even so, we should first focus on what has been changed. In the original pilot, the character of Jaime Sommers’ (Michelle Ryan) sister, Becca, was played by Mae Whitman (”State of Grace,” “Arrested Development”), but she’s since been replaced by Lucy Hale. More importantly, though, Becca used to be deaf; now, however, not only can she hear, but she’s also developed a talent as a computer hacker. Hmmm…maybe it’s just me, but this feels like one of those cases where someone in Research & Development said, “Yeah, here’s the thing: deaf characters don’t play real well in the sticks, but, hey, you know what does? Super-cute, super-smart teenage girls who have a natural aptitude that meshes well with their older sister’s newly-acquired bionics!” A deaf character would’ve been extremely interesting, but as it stands right now, this revised version of Becca feels less like a character than a plot device. Yet, as noted, the change to Becca really isn’t what made me start to feel less confident about my initial assessment of “Bionic Woman.” No, basically, what happened was that as I watched the revised pilot, I began to realize that I’d been so taken by the awesomely kick-ass fight scene at the end of the show that I’d essentially forgiven it for anything and everything that had happened before it. This time around, however, I realized that even though it still has a dark look and feel to it that makes for good viewing, it’s riddled with way more cliche-ridden dialogue than I’d remembered. Also, Katee Sackhoff’s attempt to deliver the lines of her character - Sarah Corvus, the first bionic woman - like she’s a too-cool-for-school bitch actually plays more like she’s reading off cue cards. I did not, however, share the feelings of some of my fellow Bullz-Eye / Premium Hollywood contributors about Ryan’s performance; they didn’t think she had much in the way of charisma…and, somehow, I don’t think my suggestion that she reminded me of Ione Skye did do my contrary opinion any favors. But my take on Ryan’s take on the role, however, is that Jaime Sommers is a normal, ordinary woman who’s been placed in an extraordinary situation, and it’s gonna take some time for her to step up to the plate and become a larger-than-life heroine type…and, okay, admittedly, once she gets to that point, I hope she develops a more confident and threatening delivery than she has at the end of the pilot when she utters her farewell line to Jonas (Miguel Ferrer), the director of the bionics program. (Even *I* groaned at that.) So, anyway, if you’re taking notes, here’s my new, revised opinion of the new, revised “Bionic Woman” pilot: I get the feeling that someone at the network might be pulling the strings to produce a show that’s focused more on thin characterizations and action at any cost than it is on the more interesting possibility of an intellectual technology-centered drama…and the fact that Glen Morgan has evacuated the project makes me even more concerned that that’s the case. Also, as the turmoil with CBS’s “Moonlight” has shown us, there’s nothing like the departure of a member of a show’s creative team to totally screw with its creative direction…and, unfortunately, that’s generally an ailment that all the nanite technology in the world can’t repair. In closing, here’s a trailer for the show for your viewing pleasure:
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 Well, this morning’s FedEx delivery brought the screener for the 2nd season premiere of “30 Rock,” and the good news is…it’s still funny! Hooray! Actually, that’s particularly good news, given that the series just won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series…not that an Emmy Award has ever been anything approaching an indicator of what the public likes. After all, the two highest rated episodes of “30 Rock” during its first season were its pilot and the episode where Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) goes on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Okay, so, basically, people were curious enough to tune in the first week, but then the only other thing that caught their fancy was the idea of seeing Conan O’Brien in prime time…and we attribute that to the fact that most prime-time viewers have never stayed up until 12:30 and finally wanted a chance to see what all the fuss was about with this lanky, red-headed young upstart. And given that these episodes rated #58 and #57 in their respective weeks means that even when people were curious, they weren’t that curious. Clearly, however, someone at NBC saw this trend and said, “Hmmm…well, if they’re mildly curious about seeing Conan O’Brien in prime time, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that they’ll be super crazy curious about seeing Jerry Seinfeld return to an NBC sitcom for the first time since ‘Seinfeld’ ended!”
My God. It’s crazy…but it just might work! Actually, the way they work Seinfeld into the show is one of those concepts that you can almost imagine a panicked television network executive…like, say, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin)…coming up with: they take all the unused footage of Seinfeld that they have lying around, then use it to digitally insert him into every single show on the network. (Yes, they do show examples; no, I’m not going to tell you which shows you’ll get to see him in.) Unfortunately, the problem is that Jack has decided that it’ll be much easier to move forward with the idea if they just, uh, don’t tell Jerry ’til after it’s already on the air. Seems easy enough, since the Seinfeld family is supposedly out of the country on vacation…except that - cue the dramatic music - they’re actually not! My only complaint about the season premiere is that things mostly start out focusing on the same main triad of characters: Jack, Liz (Tina Fey), and Tracy. Not that they’re not funny, but it’s like I said in my review of the Season 1 DVD set: it’s the episodes that explore the intricacies of the ensemble that prove the most memorable. Yes, it stands to reason that we’d want to know what Liz did during the summer hiatus - even if no-one on her staff does - but the goings-on of the lesser members of the cast are barely touched on…well, except for Jenna. that is. But the fact that the explanation about what’s kept her occupied for the last few months (and the effect it’s had on her) is one of the funniest parts of the episode really only goes to prove my point. C’mon, let’s spread the wealth a little more for the rest of the cast, shall we? Well, let’s blame that on the fact that everyone’s storylines probably got shrunk as a result of trying to be sure Mr. Seinfeld scored enough face time in the episode and just hope for the best, shall we? In the meantime, have a look at a wrap-up of Liz Lemon’s worst dating experiences from Season 1…
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Man, Kristen Bell’s voiceovers sure are comforting. The creators of “Gossip Girl” were smart to enlist Bell to be our unseen guide through the happenings of the teenage elite in Manhattan. Her blog is the proverbial finger on the pulse of all the social happenings at a ritzy prep school in the Upper East Side. Think “Cruel Intentions” for the CW set. Bell’s aural presence draws fans of “Veronica Mars” in, but “Gossip Girl” is lacking her old show’s depth. Granted, it’s just the pilot, but the character of bad boy Chuck is written thin, an amalgamation of every soulless rich boy we’ve ever seen on TV or in film. Even at their worst, Logan Echolls and Dick Casablancas were funny, witty and somewhat charming. Chuck is none of that. In “Gossip Girl,” too-familiar triangle of personas exists within each gender. There are the evil and shallow (Chuck and Blair), those floundering in the middle (Serena and Nate), and those goodhearted souls that are simply struggling to fit in (Dan and Jenny). There were a few good lines in the pilot, and by the time the credits roll there are heroes and relationships you can root for, but it lacks the intrinsic charm of “Veronica Mars.” Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two, but when the same network cancels one and develops another, using the star of the former as its invisible poster girl, the comparisons are inevitable - especially to a still-bitter “Mars” devotee, like myself. I’ll tune in for another week or two, but I don’t get the feeling that I’ll still be watching “Gossip Girl” in a month. What did you think? For another (more extensive) take, be sure to check out Will Harris’ review. If you missed the premiere, the CW is airing it again in most cities this Sunday. Filed under: TV and Reviews and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and Fall TV Preview and Pilots Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 When we last left Earl, he was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Yep, that’s right: Earl’s desire to keep doing right by karma led him to accept the blame for something that his ex-wife, Joy, had done, so that she could stay out of jail, have her half-sister’s baby, and continue to raise her other two kids. A noble gesture, to be sure. Too bad the end result didn’t work out so well for Earl. Or Randy. Or Joy and Darnell, either, for that matter. In fact, really, the only person who didn’t end up suffering from the effects of Earl’s departure is Catalina…which might explain why she has precious little to do during the first two episodes of Season 3 of “My Name Is Earl” except give life to a mustachioed hand puppet named Little Earl. These first two episodes - a 2-parter entitled “My Name Is Inmate #28301-16″ - are, unfortunately, pretty disappointing…and, worse, the disappointment begins within only a few seconds of the first episode. Despite the season finale ending with the discovery that Earl was going to be sharing a cell with his old buddy Ralph (Giovanni Ribisi), the season premiere begins with the realization that we probably won’t be seeing a whole lot of Ralph after all. Actually, though, that’s really just a minor quibble; after all, we do hear Ralph, and when we do, you’ll get at least one big laugh. The biggest problem is that this season is starting off feeling way too real. The characters on “My Name Is Earl” have always felt uncomfortably close to people I’ve known in my life - I’m from Virginia, so, believe me, I’ve known and loved my fair share of white trash in my time…and, to a certain extent, I still do - so that reality isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m really speaking of two aspects: Earl struggling to survive in prison, and Randy struggling to survive without Earl. There’s certainly comedy to be had in having Earl behind bars, but when there are people getting shivved, you’re definitely playing closer to the “maybe not as ‘ha-ha’ funny as it’s supposed to be” side of things. But, really, the worst part is Randy, and how incredibly stupid he’s gotten just over the course of the past few months. Yeah, he was dumb before, but now the writers have got him walking into oncoming traffic when there are clearly cars whizzing by him. It’s actually reached a level where you feel bad for the guy, where he’s crossed the line from “dumb” into “clinically retarded,” and that’s just not funny. It’s clear that the writers wanted to play up his stupidity so that it would show just how useless he is without Earl, but it’s just not working at all. The producers have admitted that they’re in no rush to get Earl out of jail, and it’s clear that they’re at least going to try to stick to their guns, but after last season’s successful use of plots arcs like Randy and Catalina’s Green-card marriage and Joy’s 3-strikes-and-you’re-in-prison situation (not to mention her pregnancy), things were really looking good for “My Name Is Earl,” and it’s a shame to think that they’re going to screw with the dynamic in such a major way…especially how poorly the first fruits of this season have turned out. But to end this write-up on a positive note, the most hopeful thing to emerge from the show’s camp for the new season is this:
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 You wouldn’t have expected a show about an egotistical doctor who’s not only a curmudgeon but also a full-fledged drug addict to have a whole lot of staying power. In fact, way back when I received an advance copy of the pilot for “House,” these were the opening lines of my review: “Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Gregory House isn’t particularly likable; in fact, at times, he presents himself to others in such a fashion that it’s almost impossible to stand him.” The entire thrust of my piece was that the show was great and deserved to be a success, but I was highly skeptical that viewers would be willing to embrace such a unabashed anti-hero.* Whoops. My bad. (Actually, I hadn’t looked at that review since I wrote it, but now that I’ve scanned it again, I’d like to share another line, one which I’m quite proud of: “[House is] consistently grumpy as hell, walks with the aid of a cane as a result of a past malady, and pops Vicodin like they’re the jellybeans that he surreptitiously prescribes to a hypochondriac in the pilot episode.” Damn, you’d think I actually wrote for a living or something!)
By the end of Season 3, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) had managed to alienate his team - Drs. Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer) - to the point that all three of them had made the decision to get the hell out; he also hadn’t exactly endeared himself to Drs. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) or Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), either, but at least they had the advantage of not having to work directly under him. As Season 4 picks up, House is still flying solo, which is bad on a couple of different levels; for one, he can’t accomplish nearly as much without a team, and, worse, if he continues to be able to work just as well without a team, his ego will inflate to a heretofore-unimagined size. (Unsurprisingly, it’s Wilson who’s most concerned about the latter, since he pretty much lives to keep House’s ego in check.) After realizing that isn’t nearly as easy to maintain his reputation as a genius without having other doctors to bounce theories off of (and finding that the janitor’s ideas just don’t match up to those of Foreman, Cameron, and Chase), House eventually concedes that it might be worth his while to dig up a new team…but, unsurprisingly, he does it on his own terms, weeding out the possible candidates by using a method that’s equally reminiscent of “Survivor” and “The Paper Chase.” Here’s a hint about the proceedings: he refuses to learn any of the candidates’ names…but he finds a way around needing to. By the way, one of the would-be team members is Dr. Lawrence Kutner, played by Kal Penn; we’re not telling whether he makes the cut or not, but we will say that, even in the one episode in which we’ve seen him, he’s already been better utilized than he was in his entire stint on “24.” Will we see House’s old team again? Obviously. Will we see them sooner than later? Probably, since they’re still in the opening credits. The bigger question is, when we see them, will we really be seeing them? (Wow, how enigmatic of me.) Funny thing is, I’m not even in all that big a hurry to see them pop up; watching House interacting with fresh meat…uh, I mean, with new doctors…is a lot of fun. Also, I’m a little nervous about watching Chase and Cameron together again; Spencer and Morrison had been a couple in real life as well, but they recently broke up, and to see them still playing a couple on the show…I mean, how can you not think, “Wow, that’s gotta be weird for them”? I am, however, interested to see how the producers are planning to bring Foreman back into the mix, given that his departure seemed so definitive. I’d like to think it’d be too predictable for him to just realize that he misses the medical challenges he had while working with House, so I’m hoping they at least have some kind of twist to it. (I’m thinking maybe it’ll have something to do with Foreman’s mom, who’s battling mental deterioration…but that’s just a guess.) Whatever else happens this season, at the very least, things are definitely starting strong for “House.” Here’s a teaser:
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After two seasons on the air, developing its characters to the point where it’s clearly not just the Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz show, “Bones” will be returning on September 25th with Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan’s (Deschanel) team getting at least as much play as the show’s two leads.
Season 2 ended with Angela Montenegro (portrayed by Michaela Conlin) and Dr. Jack Hodgins (portrayed by T. J. Thyne) forced to abandon their wedding because of a last-second revelation that Angela was actually still married, and the credits rolled with Bones and Booth (Boreanaz) standing together at the altar. Anyone who spent the summer rooting for hope that the ceremony continued with those two basically spent the summer kidding themselves, but the matter is brought up in a discussion that the pair have in the Season 3 premiere. Speaking of discussions, there’s also much talk about Angela’s husband, who turns out to be this guy she married while on vacation several years ago; they were both very drunk, she never saw him again, and she can’t really even remember what he looked like, let alone his name, which makes it a little hard to find him and get a divorce. You may also recall that, at season’s end, Dr. Zach Addy (Eric Millegan), was off to Iraq. Does he come back? Well, given that he’s still in the opening credits, it’s a safe bet that, at the very least, he’s not gone for good; in the meantime, however, Bones needs to find a replacement for him.. Despite the fact that he left a few months ago, she still can’t bring herself to put someone else in his place, and she’s using that as a crutch to avoid going into the field with Booth, which is really starting to annoy him. So that’s where we stand. But without offering up too many spoilers, it’s worth mentioning that the season premiere sets up a plot line connected to the case the team investigates during the episode which has the potential to continue for several episodes, if not the entire season. I think it’s a good thing, although I can’t help but be reminded of other procedural dramas which have gone with similar plot lines; “Bones” is one of those shows that maintains a solid viewership without necessarily being one of Fox’s matinee series, and I don’t know that they need to shake up the dynamic but so much…but, y’know, even with that having been said, clearly, it’s about time Bones and Booth got together already! (After all, the show’s creator, Hart Hanson, said it himself: “It’s season three; I think we’d better see something!”) Here’s a teaser for what to expect in the upcoming weeks:
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ESPN’s Bill Simmons loves NBC’s “Friday Night Lights.” So do I. Do us both a solid and check out at least the first four episodes of Season 1, which is available now on DVD at your local video store and online at NBC.com. It may take you a while to work through the season, so just be sure to TiVo the first few episodes of Season 2 (which starts Oct. 5) so you can get all caught up. Like many, Simmons watched the first episode and wasn’t impressed:
Then, his buddy sent him an early release Season 1 DVD set from Japan:
Amen, brother. Are there any other FNL fans out there? Filed under: TV and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and Fall TV Preview Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Welllllll…it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. But it didn’t exactly find me cheering for more, either. Over the past few months, you may or may not have thrilled to the saga of “Moonlight,” CBS’s decidedly troubled drama about a vampire turned detective who in no way resembles this dude I know who used to work for Wolfram & Hart, so here’s a quick recap of the highlights and lowlights of what’s happened: It started off being called “Twilight,” under the writing team of Trevor Munson (”Lone Star State of Mind”) and Ron Koslow (”Beauty and the Beast”), with executive producers Joel Silver and Gerard Bocaccio; Alex O’Laughlin (”The Shield”), Amber Valletta (”Hitch”), Rade Sherbedgia (”24″), and Shannon Lucio (”The O.C.”) were hired to star, and Rod Holcomb was set to direct. But, then… 1. The name changed from “Twilight” to “Moonlight.” As a result of all these changes, the show was retooled so many times that even when CBS offered its presentation for the show at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in July, the best they could offer us as an example of what to expect was a segment with the groan-inducing title of “Interview with a Vampire,” where the main character of “Moonlight” - Mick St. John - sits in a dark room and is quizzed by an off-screen journalist about what it’s like to be a vampire. I don’t know about you, but no-one on the press tour was very impressed, and, basically, we were all left thinking, “Oh, God, this thing is gonna do a major, major bellyflop”…and this was before David Greenwalt left! (He was basically the only reason any of us were maintaining a shred of hope for the show.) So here we are in that middle ground between mid-September and late September, with the premiere of “Moonlight” only a handful of days away, and, finally, we’ve gotten our hands on what’s almost certainly going to be the version of the pilot which airs on 9/28. And…oh, right, this is where you came in.
The first bad sign is that the series opens by recycling the “Interview with a Vampire” footage that was screened at the press tour. That ain’t good. I mean, yeah, it sets up the mythos of the vampire for the purposes of this particular show - they don’t sleep in coffins, garlic doesn’t do them any damage, sunlight ain’t good for ‘em but it doesn’t make ‘em burst into flame outright, and so forth - but it’s set up as being something that Mick is dreaming, and, well, it just feels lazy. From there, the first smile-inspiring moment came when we realized that Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman on “Alias”) had quietly slipped into the cast. Weisman plays the cameraman of Beth Turner (Myles), an online TV journalist who, while investigating the murder of a co-ed, invents a tagline which suggests that the killing is rather vampiric in nature. This suggestion catches St. John’s ear, and he heads over to the scene of the crime, where he encounters Beth and realizes that he recognizes her from an encounter they had some years before…and, yes, that connection is paramount to the premise of “Moonlight.” Everybody likes a good vampire story. The problem is, “Moonlight” doesn’t look like it is a good vampire story. Since we’re talking about a bunch of bloodsuckers, it’s only appropriate that we should go for the jugular and say outright that, yes, “Moonlight” does suffer from its comparison to “Angel.” David Boreanaz was dark, brooding, and looked like both a vampire and a bad-ass; Alex O’Laughlin puts on sunglasses and leers at people and, frankly, he just doesn’t look very intimidating. As a vampire, Mick St. John’s greatest gift seems to be that he can leave a room quickly and quietly; the only truly kick-ass fight scene in the pilot comes via flashback, and it’s when he’s fighting his former wife, Coraline, who we’re led to believe is dead (which almost certainly means that she is not). The most intriguing character on the show isn’t even Mick; it’s his buddy and fellow vampire, Josef Konstantin, and, truthfully, he’s probably only intriguing because he’s played by Dohring, who comes off just as snarky here as he always did when he was busy being Logan Echolls on “Veronica Mars.” Maybe I’m being too hard on “Moonlight.” Maybe the show will find its feet after everyone finally gets settled and comfortable. Unfortunately, based on what’s been offered up for the first episode, it’s looking like we might have another cheese-fest like “Forever Knight” on our hands…and as vampire-centric TV series go, that ain’t necessarily the one you want to use as a touchstone. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and Reviews and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and Fall TV Preview and Pilots Comments: 27 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Well played, NBC-Universal. Well played, indeed. You no doubt sensed I’d never seen an episode of “Las Vegas” before, since I’d never written about it before, but you knew that, as a full-fledged TV geek, I would’ve been nonetheless aware that the show was losing longtime major players like James Caan and Nikki Cox this season. You also would’ve known that, as a recipient of your daily updates, I would’ve been aware that the show was adding to its cast an actor who I’ve always found imminently watchable: Tom Selleck. So what do you do? You send me the previous season of “Las Vegas” - that’d be Season 4 - on DVD, then, a few days later, you send me an advance of the 5th season premiere, which features Selleck’s debut on the show. You knew I was curious enough about Selleck’s role that I’d at least want to check out the season premiere, and since any TV critic worth his salt knows that he should watch the previous season’s finale first, you knew you had me right where you wanted me.
So, yes, I admit it: last night, I watched the 4th season finale of “Las Vegas,” then followed up with the 5th season premiere, and I was hooked. Maybe it’s just that I was tantalized by all the flashing lights in The Montecito’s casino (though it’s more likely that I was tantalized by Nikki Cox, Vanessa Marcil, and Molly Sims), but whatever the case, that 4th season finale was really well constructed, moving back and forth from storyline to storyline at a frantic pace, always keeping you on your toes. The three stars of the episode were the plotlines involving Sam (Marcil) being locked in a steamer trunk by a psychopathic millionaire, Mary (Cox) wanting to go kill her abusive father who’d just been released from prison, and a Marine who’s losing his shit and is swearing to go AWOL if Danny (Josh Duhamel) doesn’t find a way to keep him from having to go on his 3rd tour of duty, and all ended in cliffhangers that, had I been watching the finale when it originally aired, would’ve made me want to throttle someone. Now that’s the sign of a good cliffhanger…and, now that I think about it, possibly the sign of a slightly unhinged mind as well. Whoops. So how does the season premiere hold up? Well, not to offer too much in the way of spoilers, but since it’s common knowledge that both Marcil and Sims are returning to the show for another season, we’re probably not giving away too much to say that Delinda (Sims) wasn’t killed by a bomb, and that Sam managed to get out of her predicament…and in an impressively shocking manner. In fact, the 2-hour 5th season premiere uses the framing device of having Sam talk to a therapist about recent events in both her life and the lives of her co-workers; it’s pretty clear, though, that the reason it’s two hours long is that the first hour is intended to wrap up loose ends from Season 4 and the second is to set the stage for what’s to follow in Season 5. Selleck plays A.J. Cooper, a cattle magnate who swoops in, pays off The Montecito’s 241 million in back taxes, and takes over ownership of the casino and resort; he’s an unknown commodity, so none of the employees know what to make of him…or, more importantly, if they’re going to be allowed to keep their jobs. (There’s not really much tension over that, though, since you know everyone who’s left standing by the second hour is still going to be a regular on the series.) Selleck gets the chance to use his skill at offering completely inscrutable facial expressions, which is always fun to watch, since you never know when he’s finally going to break into a smile. So, okay, fine, I’ll keep checking in on “Las Vegas.” It’s mostly because of Selleck, admittedly, but even so, there still seem to be enough interesting events going on around The Montecito to make it worth occasionally programming it into my new TiVo. In the meantime, enjoy this lovely montage, courtesy of NBC:
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Did anyone catch the premiere of “Back to You” this evening, or were you all too busy trying to spot evidence of child welfare violations in “Kid Nation”?
If you saw it, I’m curious as to what you thought. There have been a lot of mixed reviews about the show floating around, some calling it the savior of the traditional multi-camera sitcom, others call it a waste of Grade-A comedic talent. Personally, I thought the pilot was just…okay. Not fantastic (except for Fred Willard), not awful, just…okay. I’ve now also had a chance to check out the second episode, “Fish Story,” and…well, I gotta tell you, I feel exactly the same way about it. It’s great to see Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton on the small screen again, and, yes, they do seem to have a chemistry, but right now, the banter isn’t up to par with what we’ve come to expect from either of them. It’s pretty lazy stuff. I’m much more interested in seeing the rest of the ensemble cast begin to blossom; Ty Burrell’s delivery as Gary Crezyzewski is nice and dry, and, well, Fred Willard can do no wrong in my eyes, but, criminey, two episodes in, and I still feel like Josh Gad’s performance as Ryan Church is nothing more than an imitation of Chris Farley’s motivational speaker who lives in a van by the river! Anyway, here’s a clip from the pilot, if you missed it tonight:
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So we got our hands on a copy of the revised pilot for “Reaper,” and the DVD box now features a tagline for the show: “Meet Satan’s biggest tools.” Ugh. God love The CW for picking up this great series, but, wow, that’s awful. I mean, seriously, it’s pretty awful. The only thing vaguely funny about it is that it reminds us that, at one point during the pilot, The Devil (Ray Wise), sees the soul Sam’s supposed to return to Hell and says, “Oh, gag! Look at that tool! Would you capture him already?” That moment is funny. The tagline itself is not. Okay, back to the revised pilot.
As you may or may not have read in our previous entries about the show, the role of Andi, Sam’s co-worker who he’s been crushing hard on for quite some time, has been taken away from Nikki Reed, star and co-writer of the film “Thirteen,” and given instead to Missy Perigrym, best known to fans of “Heroes” as Candice Wilmer, the shape-shifting associate of Noah “H.R.G.” Bennet. Since I am a fan of “Heroes,” that might be why, when Perigrym first appeared on the screen in “Reaper,” I found it almost impossible to buy her as the nice, sweet, and sympathetic girl that Sam’s been falling for. Fortunately, however, as the show progresses, it gradually becomes a bit easier to accept her in the role…and, besides, however I might feel about her being in the cast, it’s clear that The CW is banking on her recognizability, since they’ve pointedly placed her visage on the cover of this promo DVD, right along with co-stars Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine. (Why Wise isn’t front and center, however, is a little inexplicable.) Otherwise, however, this revised pilot for “Reaper” looks and feels just as fantastic as it did before, packed with action, comedy, drama, and plenty of special effects. And, to be fair, it’s likely that most viewers will readily accept Perigrym in the role of Andi without question; I’m probably just partial because I really liked the clean-cut feel that Reed gave the part. Mark your calendars: the series premiere of “Reaper” - directed by Kevin Smith, no less - airs Tuesday, September 25th, at 9:00 PM EST. You won’t want to miss it. Here’s a teaser…
Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and Reviews and External Entertainment and External TV and Reaper and Fall TV Preview and Pilots Comments: 4 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Confession: prior to the announcement that “Grey’s Anatomy” was going to be getting a spin-off, I’d never seen a single episode of the show. Even worse, I don’t even have a decent excuse for it. Everybody I know who’s seen the show has loved it, so, really, it just comes down to the fact that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to check it out. One of these days, though, I’m sure I’ll take the plunge and pick up a copy of Season 1 and just jump headlong into the series…and based on how much I enjoyed the pilot for its spin-off, “Private Practice,” that day may come sooner than later.
Y’know, I’ve tagged this as a “Pilots Revisited” entry, but the truth is that this is the first time I’ve checked out this pilot; before, all I had to go on was last season’s 2-hour episode of “Grey’s,” where Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) leaves Seattle Grace Hospital and goes to visit one of her friends, Dr. Naomi Bennett (Merrin Dungey), who’s a member of the Oceanside Wellness Center, in Santa Monica, CA. It was what the kids today call a “backdoor pilot,” which is to say that it gave the folks at the network all they needed to see to know that Addison’s adventures would make for a great series on their own…so, basically, if you saw the episode and heard about the impending spin-off, you won’t be surprised to find that the first episode of “Private Practice” - “In Which We Meet Addison, A Nice Girl From Somewhere Else” - begins with Addison tendering her official resignation to Dr. Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and heading off to join Naomi’s practice. Well, first things first: Naomi is now played by Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald, who you may or may not remember from a few episodes of “Kidnapped.” Otherwise, however, the gang from the Wellness Center remains intact…and, frankly, that gang - Tim Daly (”The Nine”), Taye Diggs (”Day Break”), Amy Brenneman (”Judging Amy”), Paul Adelstein (”Prison Break”), and Chris Lowell (”Veronica Mars”) - is what makes this show worth checking out whether you’re a fan of “Grey’s Anatomy” or not. (Here’s a YouTube link to an ABC / Entertainment Weekly segment collaboration which talks about the cast.) This first episode revolves around one key event: Naomi neglected to tell anyone else at the Center that she’d hired Addison, which annoys everyone to a certain degree, some more than others. Addison rolls with the reaction from her new co-workers and tries to indoctrinate herself into the group as best she can; meanwhile, everyone else pretty much just goes on with their normal day. The feel of the show is, I’m led to understand, pretty similar to “Grey’s”…which is to say that when I asked fellow editor David Medsker, “Does ‘Grey’s’ kind of blend humor and drama, with really snappy back-and-forth patter when the primary cast members are talking to each other?”, he responded, “I’ve only seen an episode or two, but that sounds about right.” So, y’know, take it with a grain of salt. As it stands right now, it looks like the series will blend the expected medical drama with a more leisurely pace - Addison’s told to expect an average of about one patient a day - that will no doubt lead to just as many developments in the characters’ personal lives as you’d anticipate in a nighttime soap. Stupid ABC, making me want to watch a spin-off of a show I’ve never even seen before. Why must you create such a fantastic ensemble? You suck. P.S. More, please. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and External Entertainment and External TV and Fall TV Preview and Pilots Comments: 3 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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I’m still a little uncertain about “Chuck.” There’s a whole lot to like about it, but I still can’t get a handle on what the producers are planning to do with it. Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is the title character, a computer geek who finds himself working simultaneously for two different government agencies as a result of his former college roommate sending him a coded E-mail which, when Chuck opens it, bombards him with an ungodly amount of classified information that’s sent straight into his subconscious mind, only emerging in bits and pieces as he spots various “triggers.” It’s an odd blend of action, comedy, and romance…and when I say “odd,” I mean that it feels like it’s trying too hard to be all three things; there are elements of “Alias,” Jim Cameron’s “True Lies,” and even “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” but it’s definitely not a seamless blend of genres.
Having now checked out the pilot as well as the subsequent pair of episodes, it’s fair to call the second episode, “Chuck versus The Helicopter,” the series’ equivalent of a “Gilligan ruins a chance for the castaways to get off the island” plot, where it looks like Chuck’s gonna get the classified government information out of his head but - rather unsurprisingly, given that it’s only the second episode - he doesn’t. Hopefully, we won’t be getting one of these every week…and, more crucially, let’s hope the show’s humor doesn’t slide into the God-awful slapstick realm that it does here. There’s a scene where Chuck brings Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), the government agent who’s posing as his girlfriend to stay close to the secrets he possesses, over for dinner at his sister’s house, and when it comes times to serve dessert, you’ll feel like you’re watching a bad episode of “Three’s Company.” Thankfully, the third episode, “Chuck versus The Tango” (are you seeing the pattern here?), works better than either of the two segments which preceded it, leaving us hopeful but still fearful that it could prove to be an isolated success. My biggest concern about the show, though, is that I’m just not entirely sure how “Chuck” is gonna do in that Monday-at-8PM timeslot it’s been given by NBC. I’m not saying it’s gonna do badly there, but, basically, I just have absolutely no feel for it at all. It’s up against one massive ratings powerhouse (”Dancing with the Stars”), but, otherwise, all of its other competition is probably more or less on even footing. “Prison Break” is coming off a lackluster season, while the other two major networks are offering up sitcoms that are really funny but have rarely been major comedic players in the ratings (CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” and The CW’s “Everybody Hates Chris”), and they’re paired with new sitcoms that seem poised to score similar descriptions in the future (CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and The CW’s “Aliens in America”). If it doesn’t take off right away - and, of course, provided that it maintains the standards set by that third episode - here’s hoping they at least give it a shot elsewhere on the schedule. Here’s a teaser:
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I’m not sure how I did it, but, somehow, I managed to watch the screener for the pilot of “Journeyman,” write about it in Bullz-Eye’s fall preview, and focused on the similarity to “The Time Traveler’s Wife” without naking the obvious comparison to “Quantum Leap.” Maybe it’s because I never really watched the Scott Bakula time-travel drama very often, but it just never occurred to me…which, in retrospect, makes me feel like a complete idiot, because the similarity - a guy travels back and forth through time, each time following a particular individual, never knowing where his next trip is going to take him - is undeniably there. In a word, D’oh!
The pilot is definitely strong, offering up the premise as well as the mystery surrounding it - why is Dan Vasser (played by Kevin McKidd) jumping through time, and what does his supposedly-dead ex-fiancee, Livia (Moon Bloodgood), have to do with it? - as well as setting up an explanation for how he could possibly convince his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf), that he really is jumping through time. In the second episode, “Friendly Skies,” we get more of a glimpse as to how quickly this abrupt disappearing problem of Dan’s is on its way to ruining his marriage, even if Katie does know what’s happening to him. We also see that not only are the producers planning to continue using music to help set up the various eras to which Dan travels but, more importantly, they aren’t afraid to steer away from the most obvious selections. Sure, when he pops back to the ’70s, it’s all about listening to disco on an 8-track player, but trips to the ’80s and ’90s bring songs from The Psychedelic Furs and Freedy Johnston. (On a side note, it’s clear that, during the aforementioned ’70s visit, the crew had a hello f a lot of fun reminiscing about how much fun it used to be when flying the friendly skies.) “Studio 60″ might’ve been a poor fit for the post-”Heroes” timeslot, but “Journeyman” still looks as strong now as it did when we first checked it out…and, better yet, the ongoing romantic aspect of the show seems poised to grab a larger female audience than your average sci-fi drama. Here’s a teaser:
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There are three big reasons to take another look at “Life,” NBC’s new police drama…but, first, here’s the premise in a nutshell: Charlie Crew is a cop who’s arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and sent to jail for 12 years before he’s cleared; upon his release, he scores not only a considerable amount of financial compensation for being wrongly jailed but, additionally, gets himself put back on the force, mostly so that he can quietly continue to find an answer to question of who did commit the crime of which he was accused. There, that’s out of the way. Now, on to those three big reasons to take another look at the show… Actually, the first one’s as much a matter of principle as anything. The role of the lawyer who helps Charlie overturn his conviction was played by Melissa Sagemiller (Gayle Bishop on “Sleeper Cell”) in the pilot but is now played by Brooke Langton (Samantha Reilly on “Melrose Place”); frankly, though, the character doesn’t really get a lot of play in the pilot, so the difference between actresses is mostly negligible.
The second reason, however, is definitely worth discussing. In the fall preview, I said of Charlie Crews that he “comes across as one of those characters who’s straddling the line between eccentric and annoying, and he tends toward the latter more often than he ought to, which is troublesome.” It’s notable that they’ve re-cut the pilot to chop out a few moments here and there to attempt and remedy this problem, though I couldn’t help but notice that one of the cuts was, in fact, one of the moments that made me laugh. (When Charlie arrives at his first crime scene after returning to the force, he walks up behind two officers who are discussing things they’ve heard he’d done, and he promptly interrupts them with his own “I heard he…” moment.) Overall, the quirkiness is still there, but as we progress into the second episode - “Tear Asunder” - there’s a definite attempt to focus more on Charlie’s attempts to solve the mystery of who committed that 12-year-old crime and less on his being so bizarre. In fact, on that front, they even slide in a moment which indicates that he was completely and totally normal before he went into prison, so one presumes that they’re going to further explore the events that o |
