 You may have noticed that my postings have slowed down. You might not have cared, but you’ve probably at least noticed, if only because you haven’t gotten four or five Diggs from me every day. Well, there are two reasons for that: the first is that we’re dealing with days with one broadcast network as opposed to five or six different cable networks, and the second is that my wife joined me on Friday, and given that I hadn’t seen her since July 7th, I wanted to focus more on her than my work for a change. C’mon, I earned a break! And it’s not like I wasn’t still attending all of these panels for you…well, except for the majority of The CW’s panels. I must admit that, after the “90210″ presentation, we hit the road and went to Universal Studios…and, yet, even then I was working, so be sure to stay tuned for my coverage of the new ‘Simpsons’ ride, which was awesome. But, okay, enough of my apologies. Let’s continue with CBS’s presentations, shall we? The Mentalist: I’d like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my mother-in-law, who was interested in this series before it was even on my radar. When I told her I had started to get my usual flurry of advance screeners in preparation for the TCA tour, the first question she asked was, “Hey, have you gotten one for that show ‘The Mentalist’ yet?” In fact, I had just gotten one that day…and when I told her, she all but flipped out. “We need to watch that when I come over for dinner on Friday!” she informed me. She kept trying to tell us about the shows that the series’ star had been in, except that she was blanking on both his name and his other shows, but a quick trip to IMDb.com solved both problems, at which point she gave a look of disdain when I admitted that I’d never actually seen an episode of Simon Baker’s previous series, “The Guardian.” Finally, as we began to screen the pilot, the truth came out: she thinks he’s hot.
I can’t speak to the man’s inherent hotness because I don’t want “The Mentalist” to fall victim to what is henceforth to be referred to as “The ‘Moonlight’ Effect.” I really, really dug what I saw, possibly because it reminds me of what “Psych” could be if James Roday didn’t grate on my nerves. It’s a drama about a guy named Patrick Jane (Baker) who has honed his observational skills to a degree where he was able to make a living as a TV psychic, but he’s since given that up and become a detective. He’s got a major ego, but it’s warranted, given how good he is at what he does. Still, it’s been known to backfire on occasion; he has a dark history which is hinted at during the course of the pilot and will be explored during the course of the series. Baker admitted that he got particular enjoyment out of playing the flashback scenes to his character’s early days. “That was a lot of fun,” he said, “because you’re playing an actor and you get to actually comment on the shallowness of acting. You’re commenting on yourself, so it’s sort of self-deprecating in a sense. I love that the character is a fraud and is aware of his fraudulent nature.” Baker did not, however, have an opportunity to do much research for on playing a TV psychic, given the speed at which things happened with his casting and the pilot’s subsequent filming. “I was flown in from Australia, met with Bruno (Heller, producer) the day I arrived,” said Baker, “and a day and a half later, we were shooting, basically. So Bruno said, ‘Have a look at a few different people on YouTube,’ and I had a look at stuff. Next thing, I had my whole family around me, we’re all going, ‘Oh, my God, how did he do that? How did he do that?’ And then on YouTube, there’s also people posting other clips where they debunk, explaining how these tricks are working through NLP, neurolinguistic programming.It’s just tip-of-the-surface of the knowledge that these people have, so I didn’t ask anything. We had a consultant from the Magic Castle, who was more of a sleight-of-hand guy, but he had a few different hypnotizing tricks and stuff like that. And Bruno furnished me with a bunch of literature, holiday reading. It’s very heady stuff. What these guys get into and the skills that they have and then the capacity to remember things and move forward is…it’s too much for me. I’m pretending totally 100 percent to be a mentalist.” To bring things full circle, let us note that Heller is aware of the similarities to “Psych,” but he’s not worried about critics making snarky comments. “Patrick Jane isn’t pretending to be a psychic,” explained Heller. “He was someone who worked as a psychic but now is very honest and direct about not having those powers, so there’s no pretense. They’re two quite different shows. You can always draw parallels with other shows, but this is much more like Sherlock Holmes than (’Psych’).” I second that emotion. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that CBS has been talked about quite a lot in the last couple of years. First, “Jericho” got the network lots of press as a result of their decision to resurrect the show for a second season because of fan demand, then it got them even more when they canceled the show for good after it failed to win the appropriate ratings. In recent weeks, they’ve been dealing with bitter vampire fans who can’t believe that “Moonlight” managed to win the People’s Choice Award for Best New Series, only to get canceled when it, too, failed to win the ratings necessary to earn it a sophomore season. Last year, Mandy Patinkin’s abrupt decision to bail out of “Criminal Minds” was all the talk of the TCA Tour, and, now, William Petersen is leaving “C.S.I.,” which is also chat-worthy. CBS President Nina Tassler took all comers in her Executive Session, and here are the highlights…besides that bit about “Moonlight,” of course.
* The future of “Swingtown” is ambiguous at best. “I’m very proud of the show, I love the show, everybody knows how passionate I’ve been about it,” she said. “I wish the ratings were better, but this is the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. But right now, we’re behind the show and we are proud of it.” When further questioned as to whether “proud” translated into “second season,” however, she wouldn’t commit. “We haven’t made that decision right now, but I am proud of the show. Creatively, I think they’re doing a great job.” (She also reiterated her disappointment in the ratings, which is surely not a good sign.) * Despite much prodding, Tassler claimed to have no actor in place to fill the shoes of “Billy Petersen” in “C.S.I..” “I don’t think you replace Billy,” Tassler said, “but you sort of look at adding elements to the show that are really going to invigorate and contribute to the alchemy of the show where it is today. They’ve created a great character. He’s a doctor, a scientist who’s got a very interesting DNA that is going to inform the duality of the character. Like I said, it’s not necessarily replacing Billy, but it’s adding an element that is going to sort of inform the dynamic of the team today. What I know of him so far…Carol (Mendelsohn) and Naren (Shankar) are still working on him…is that he is an outsider coming into the CSI unit. When Gil Grissom leaves, he’s the head of the unit, (but) this character doesn’t come in at the beginning as the head of the unit. He comes in a little bit as an outsider, someone who is ultimately going to work his way up within the team and ultimately become the head of the unit. But he has an interesting genetic profile that, in certain sort of medical contexts, they’ve noticed that many times serial killers have that same genetic profile. And this gentleman knows this about himself and is sort of in this journey and to discover who his true character will ultimately become.” The gentleman in question, however, has not yet been cast, and if there’s anyone under discussion, his name did not leak out during the course of the panel. * Disappointingly, “Harper’s Island,” the new thriller series starring Bill Pullman, is not scheduled to debut ’til mid-season. (Okay, granted, it’s probably not any better than your average slasher flick, since that’s clearly what it resembles, but I was still entertained by the teaser reel they sent us.) * There is no controversy over the omission of Jay Mohr’s new sitcom, “Gary Unmarried,” from the panels. “Jay is re-taking his vows with his wife and her entire family on the other side of the world someplace,” Tassler explained. “He planned this about a year ago, and he flew over his in-laws and his whole family, so that’s why he’s not here right now.” * Sophina Brown has joined the cast of “Numb3rs,” and Rocky Carroll has become a regular on “NCIS.” * Despite doing relatively well on CBS this summer, there are no plans to continue re-running “Dexter” on CBS. * There are six more episodes of “Password” being filmed, but there is no concrete time-frame as to when they will air. There is no word on the return of “Power of 10,” though CBS apparently reserves the right to bring it back. (At the very least, Tassler never said it was canceled.) * There will also be more Hallmark movies aired on the network, though no specifics were offered. * Despite rumors to contrary, there is no plan for an overhaul of “The Price Is Right.” “We are very respectful of the brand and the integrity of that show,” Tassler assured us, “and probably about a year, two years before Bob finally stepped down, there was a multiyear strategy to perhaps put a fresh coat of paint on some of the games that hadn’t been touched in years. As you’ve seen, the sets have been refurbished, but certainly respectful of what those doors looked like, what the lights looked like, but this is all basically it was a plan that was put in place years before Bob left just to sort of make some minor adjustments to the show.” * Tassler revealed that Sarah Chalke will be doing multiple episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” this year (hey, maybe Bill Lawrence was right!) and that Jason Alexander and Luke Perry would be turning up on “Criminal Minds.” * As to the problems with “Two and a Half Men” becoming “Three Men,” Tassler says, “You’re going to see Angus is going to be going through typical teen things. I mean, he’s 14. So it opens up a whole new treasure trove of stories. Charlie’s got a whole host of issues that he has to deal with in terms of having a teenager in the house, so it forms a great season of new storytelling for them on the show.” * “Flashpoint” may return. Or it may not. “Like I said, we’re in the ratings game,” said Tassler, “and if they do well, it’s certainly something for us to consider.” And that’s the end. From there, we move into… Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TV Sci-Fi and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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I’d just like to pat myself on the back for a moment, if I may, and say that this is the first time since the first day of the tour that I’ve actually caught up to the point where I’m writing about a network’s presentations while that network is still doing their presentations. I don’t know how many people are reading my stuff with any regularity, but given how hard I’ve been trying to knock this panel coverage out in a timely manner, those of you who are keeping up will know how much ass I’ve kicked to get this close to being completely caught up. Okay, enough self-congratulation. On with the ABC coverage! And…what’s this? Why, it’s another executive session! Welcome, if you would, the President of ABC Entertainment, Mr. Steve McPherson. I posted about the first question of the panel the other day, but it was so funny that it bears repeating, so here’s the exchange as it went down:
Jimmy Kimmel: Hi, my name’s Tom Weinerman from the Sarasota Star-Herald Tribune. There are rumors that ABC is actively courting Jay Leno for 11:30. Is there any truth to those rumors? And if so, I have a follow-up, then. Genius. After Kimmel headed off to do untold damage to McPherson’s car, his boss assured us, “I can’t say enough about Jimmy. His show has just exploded this year. He’s done an amazing job. You know, I think everybody knows all the YouTube stuff, and the videos have been just an explosion. The live commercials he’s doing are groundbreaking. The show creatively is firing at all cylinders, and we’re hugely supportive of it. The Leno situation…to me it’s a question for NBC. I can’t believe that they’re going to let this guy go at the top of his game, and if that happens, I guess we’ll look at it at the time, and Jimmy will be involved in those discussions. And that will be that.” So there you go. As to other notable revelations from McPherson, they were as follows: * Will this be the last season of “Scrubs”? More details on that later from the horse’s mouth, but as far as McPherson’s concerned, “After talking to Zach, talking to Bill, and whether and/or all of the cast is a part of that, I still think there’s a great amount of growth there. It’s a show that, despite being moved around into like 17 time periods and really never being given the marketing support, has really performed unbelievably well on NBC. So we’re excited to have it as part of our comedy assets, and we do think that it will not hopefully be a one-season situation. But we’ll just take that step by step.” * The unique tone of “Pushing Daisies” will remain unchanged. (I guess there was some concern about that…? I couldn’t imagine they’d change a thing about it, given how it so defiantly stands apart from anything else on the television, but at least we have confirmation now.)
* “Private Practice,” meanwhile, will be tweaked to a certain extent…not the cast (thankfully, since it’s one of the best ensembles out there), but the direction. “If you watched the show last year, maybe the best episode was about the baby that was switched, and the kind of moral and ethical dilemmas that go on with that and real medical drama. We’re going to get Kate (Walsh’s) character back to actually doing surgery as part of that, which I think will be a big proponent for getting some more energy back, getting some medical drama. There’s going to be more interaction with the hospital, because I think she does an unbelievable job of character, but it works best when it’s laid over kind of a palette of these really great medical stories.” (Again, we’ll have more details when we cover the actual “Private Practice” panel.) * As far as his position on Katherine Heigl’s war of words with the “Grey’s Anatomy” writers, “I think it’s unfortunate when there’s any kind of turmoil on a show. There’s so many people who work so unbelievably hard to make that show the #1 show in the country. I think it’s a beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully produced show. Everyone from the grips to the writers to the EPs, I think, deserves an enormous amount of credit, and I never like to see when any of them are in any way taken lightly, so I think that was really unfortunate. She’s absolutely staying with the show. There’s an unbelievable storyline for her this year, which is really central to everything that’s going to go on this season. We’re really excited about that. Shonda (Rhimes) is really excited about that and is the one who actually crafted that. I think you’ll hear more about that from her as the season goes on…and maybe at the Show Runner Panel.” (That’s a big 10-4, by the way.) * According to McPherson, everything is just ducky with “Life on Mars.” “I don’t know where the rumors come from,” he said, perhaps rather naively. (Clearly, they come from the internet!) “I think people are kind of searching for something. There’s no conspiracy. It’s in great shape. We are keeping some of the cast. We’re in the process of recasting certain elements. Michael Imperioli is joining the cast. We’re pursuing a big element right now that we’re hoping will close. We’re shooting in New York, which we’re really excited about. So we continue to be extremely excited about that show. I don’t look at it as a troubled show at all. We’re really enthusiastic. We had a piece of casting that we booked two nights ago. It is a work in progress, certainly. But I would certainly not root against it at this point. It’s really one of my passion projects. It’s something we’ve been trying to bring to life for a few years.” * The rumors are true: Katie Holmes will indeed be guest-starring on “Eli Stone.” “I was at the table read. She was fabulous,” says McPherson. “It’s a great role for her. There’s actually some singing and dancing that she does, and she’s exquisite. It’s a really special piece of business. And obviously, for a show that we really creatively believed in and had a tough launch because of the strike, it helps us from a promotional standpoint. But first and foremost, Greg (Berlanti) came to me with the idea because he really had a creative way to do it, and him and Katie wanted to get back together and do something, so we were really fortunate that she agreed to do it, and we’re excited.” * The greatest lost ABC project of recent years: “A Will Ferrell Christmas.” “We had signed a deal to do a Christmas special variety show with Will Ferrell a couple years ago,” said McPherson, “until he realized how much money he made in features and decided to go do that instead.” * “Boston Legal” is ending because David Kelley has 13 episodes left him. Yes, it’s apparently really just that simple. “He really wanted to end it,” said McPherson. “He really wanted to do some things with our two core characters. It was really his decision, and I really like being able to know when shows are going out. Let’s let these creators who have created unbelievably compelling characters and iconic pieces of television end it with dignity and integrity and, to me, compelling content. And we can market it as such. For us, it’s an advantage. We really appreciate David signing up and getting excited about these final 13. We’re talking about how to really sell them as this kind of final crescendo for what, for us, has been a terrific series.” And those are pretty much the highlight’s from Mr. McPherson’s neighborhood. From there, we move on to… Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and TV Sci-Fi and Reality TV and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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We’re returning to Day 7 of the TCA Press Tour…and the second part of Fox’s first day of panels…with a moment or two of unabashed bitching. The recipient of this bitchfest…? “24.” See this picture of Kiefer Sutherland?
See all those microphones and tape recorders surrounding him? This was the only access any of us had to him or the other members of the “24″ cast and production team who were in attendance at the press tour…and let me assure you that not pictured here are probably at least 47 other microphones and tape recorders that were just outside of the range of the camera. (As it is, I’m forced to wonder if the photographer was either standing on a chair or hanging from a chandelier to get this shot, since he couldn’t possibly have gotten close otherwise.) Instead of doing a proper panel for what’s ostensibly the most talked-about show returning to Fox’s line-up, the network opted to provide a casual affair, where we all mingled about the lobby of the ballroom during lunch together and struggled to get anywhere near Sutherland. They used the same methodology for “Prison Break” during the breakfast period (”Prison Break”-fast, get it?), and though it was a slightly less frantic affair, possibly due to the early hour, it was still less effective than a proper panel would have been, to be certain. I realize that Fox had a bit of a scheduling crunch due to the TCA swiping half of one of their two days for a luncheon with “The Bonnie Hunt Show” and a set visit to “Mad Men,” but I’d much rather have had a “So You Think You Can Lunch” function with Cat Deeley and company and gotten a proper “24″ panel instead. Not getting proper time with the “24″ folks after such a long time between seasons made for easily the biggest disappointment of the TCA tour to date. Okay, moving on… Secret Millionaire: I’m going to fall back on the press release again, lest I fall into snark mode while discussing this well-intentioned series, then I’ll speak more of it afterwards. Here goes: “‘Secret Millionaire’ is a dramatic unscripted series that takes America’s wealthiest individuals away from their lavish lifestyles, sprawling mansions and private planes and places them undercover into some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in America. The inspirational series reveals the dramatic personal return that the participating millionaires receive when they leave their fortunes to invest in those less fortunate. Challenged with living on minimum wage, the millionaires will immerse themselves in situations beyond their comprehension. They will work side-by-side with community members and befriend those in need to decide who should ultimately receive their extraordinary gifts of a lifetime. The millionaires will be touched by the people they meet. Some will inspire with their dedication to helping others, while others will relay stories of overcoming tremendous odds. On the final day, the Secret Millionaires meet with the chosen recipients and reveal their true identity and intention: to give them at least $100,000 of their own money and to change their lives forever.” Okay, so the rich folks learn how the other side lives, right? Fair enough. The millionaires sounded like nice enough guys, aided in no small part by the fact that a couple of them were self-made millionaires, so they know at least a little bit about struggling through an ordinary life (as opposed to be handed everything on a silver platter). The cynic in me, though, can’t help but view this as Fox finally getting around to doing a well-intentioned reality show long after just about everyone else has gone this route. I’m probably wrong. But I also probably won’t watch even if I am. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and News and TV Dramas and TV Action and 24 and External Entertainment and External TV and TCA Press Tour and Reality TV and Fall TV Preview and Pilots and TCA Blog 2008 Comments: 2 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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As a “Doctor Who” fanatic, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” was initially an easy sell. After watching Billie Piper as Rose Tyler for two seasons, I’ve since been game to watch her in just about anything. Sitting down and actually seeing Piper unveil her dual lives of Belle the prostitute and Hannah the typical London girl was a different matter entirely. There was something incredibly dirty about seeing her lube up her private parts, masturbate with a vibrator in front of a client, and ride another while he wears a saddle. It’s just so not Rose Tyler. It’s also difficult to tell based on the first episode whether or not Belle is even a likable person. What’s easy to glean is that she’s very good at her job and takes pride in doing it right. Probably the one thing that keeps her someone whom we can at all understand is the continued breaking of the fourth wall (i.e. speaking to the camera, and thus to the viewers). Normally, this is the kind of thing that would drive me nuts; here it feels like a necessity. It would be very difficult to follow this woman around from day to day, or care about her escapades if not for this narrative device. Within the episode, two very different clients are showcased. One is an easy to please, but shy businessman type. All he needs is the slightest bit of coaxing from Belle in order for her to figure out his desires. In this case, he’s got some kind of barnyard fixation (not bestiality, but rather a “down on the farm” kind of thing). Things go so well after their first meeting that he comes back for more - and that’s when the saddle enters the admittedly humorous picture. Her other client is a different matter entirely. No matter what she does, he just can’t get it up, and he rather ashamedly leaves, at which point Belle addresses the audience and says, “First time that’s happened.” Later on during a meeting with her business manager, Stephanie (Cherie Lunghi), Belle asks if she’s heard from the client. Yes she has and he’s asked for a different type of girl – the next-door type. Belle asks for another chance with the guy, and this time she loses her fancy hair, the overdone makeup, and her high-priced clothing. And this time it works only too well. Once the work is over and she and the gent are resting comfortably she accidentally mentions her real name. He likes her even more, and thus ends their business dealings (although it would be interesting to see this guy come back at a later date). That’s sort of the key to the show, and why Piper is an excellent choice for the part. She’s an actress who can play the slut and the schoolgirl equally convincingly, which is necessary for a series that will over time demand that she show us two very different sides of one woman. We get a glimpse of Hannah here as well, when she goes out for an afternoon of fun with her best friend, Ben (Iddo Goldberg), a guy who knows nothing of her other life. (So much for best friends, eh?) It’s interesting that this series would choose to make Hannah’s best friend a guy, and I cannot begin to speculate on the implications of that. It’s also worth noting that Piper doesn’t have to show immense amounts of skin in order for this series to work. She radiates so much raw sex appeal that just seeing her prance around in a bra and panties is plenty revealing. Since this was created for British TV, don’t expect it to get as explicit as some of the other Showtime series like “Californication” or “The L Word” - at least not in the first season. But when it comes back for the second season (which has already been greenlit), I wouldn’t be surprised if some alternate, more explicit scenes are shot specifically for the Showtime airings. Filed under: TV and Actresses and TV Comedies and TV Dramas and Pilots Comments: 1 Comment Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
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Like most anyone over the age of 30, I grew up on a yearly diet of network showings of “The Wizard of Oz.” Loved the movie so much as a child that I read the book by L. Frank Baum when I was 11 or so. Someone who fits into such a category should instantly be wary of SciFi’s new miniseries “Tin Man,” right? Yet I’ve never viewed “Oz” as such a sacred cow that reworkings of the material are considered an outrage. If anything there’s a wealth of fantastic material that Baum created that hasn’t been adequately adapted into live action movies and/or TV. Yet as far back as the ‘70s musical “The Wiz,” the original story has been blatantly reworked into new forms. Even David Lynch took a bold, peculiar stab at it in 1990 with “Wild at Heart.” And “Tin Man” wants to have another go at it? Great, go for it – but count me as someone who’d still like to see a series of straightforward movie adaptations ala “Harry Potter” or “Narnia.” Indeed, 1985’s “Return to Oz” is probably more faithful to Baum’s vision than the classic Judy Garland film. The producers of “Tin Man” certainly want to get on my good side by casting Zooey Deschanel (Trillian from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” movie, amongst many other credits) as the lead character, DG. And bringing guys like Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough and Richard Dreyfuss onboard certainly doesn’t hurt. But casting aside, the story needed to be a good one. Having only seen Part One of Three thus far, the results were mostly engaging. It’d be easy to write off “Tin Man” right away as having strayed too far from the source material, but as I viewed the first installment, it slowly seduced and pulled me in. It seems that one of its biggest strengths, in fact, is exactly how far it’s strayed from the original work. “Tin Man” seems to be less fantasy and more sci-fi. Rather than being an adaptation of Baum’s novel, it’s instead a piece that takes cues and iconography from the source material to set up its own brand new universe, referred to here as the O.Z. (the Outer Zone). Turns out that DG (Dorothy Gale) is actually the sister of Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson), the O.Z.’s version of the Wicked Witch (although she seems to owe even more to “Narnia’s” White Witch). To protect DG from her sister, she was sent to live in our world under the care of a couple who were actually robots from the O.Z. As if her heritage isn’t enough of a departure, each other classic icon has been given a spin as well. McDonough’s Tin Man is actually a cop out for revenge for the killing of his family. The sequence where he’s released from an iron maiden of sorts – after having to endure years of viewing a repeated holographic depiction of the murder of his family – is chilling and effective. Cumming’s Glitch has a zipper on his head to mark the spot where valuable info was taken out (brains). Raw, the lion figure, is of a race that’s telepathic (this old school “Doctor Who” fan was reminded of the time sensitive Tharils from “Warriors’ Gate”). Dreyfuss’ drug-addled Mystic Man seemed even more of a clueless charlatan than anything out of the movies or books. The Munchkin city smacked of Endor and Ewoks. Yeah, “Tin Man” is getting its influence from material far outside of the work of L. Frank Baum. The final half hour devolved into a lot of action and I’d need to give that section another once over before commenting. Truth be told, the first installment covered so much ground, that I can’t even begin to imagine where it’s all going if it keeps up at this pace. You know what “Tin Man’s” biggest disappointment thus far is? The winged monkeys, which just go to show that CGI can never replace little people in creepy makeup and costumes. Filed under: Movies and TV and Movie Dramas and TV Action and TV Sci-Fi and Pilots Comments: None Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 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 |
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Once you’ve written about the pilot twice, there’s really no need for you to talk about it yourself, wouldn’t you agree? But if you happened to catch the first episode of “Reaper,” I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts and see if you enjoyed it as much as I did…or if you didn’t. Filed under: TV and Actors and Actresses and TV Comedies and TV Action and External Entertainment and External TV and TV Sci-Fi and Reaper and Pilots Comments: 2 Comments 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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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 |
 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: 32 Comments Digg this! Add to Del.icio.us |
 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…
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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 occurred during Charlie’s stay behind bars. Lastly, the third reason to take another look at “Life” is that, at least based on the second episode, they’re starting to do more with Adam Arkin’s character. Arkin plays Ted Early, a former inmate who knew Charlie when they were both in the clink together; apparently, Charlie saved Ted’s life in prison and, as a result, Ted’s now serving as Charlie’s financial advisor. The pilot had a brief but funny moment tagged onto the very end, where Charlie buys an orange grove - complete with tractor - and Ted decides to take Charlie up on his offer to drive the tractor. Suffice it to say that Mr. Early probably hasn’t been called Farmer Ted a great deal, and his actions while behind the wheel of the tractor result in a plot thread which is picked up in “Tear Asunder” to great effect. I’m still not 100% sure that “Life” is going to find an audience, but, even so, kudos to the producers for steering their boat into slightly less murky waters. Here’s a teaser:
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