And dig the trailer for Roger Corman’s 1994 Fantastic Four flick instead!
Month: June 2007 (Page 3 of 8)
With the series finale of “The Sopranos,” HBO is facing a crossroads. I’m not sure what percentage of the network’s subscribers were mainly (or only) interested in Tony Soprano and his family, but it has to be significant. HBO is aware that they need to quickly develop more good programming if they hope to keep the train going down the tracks.
Their first hour-long effort is “John from Cincinnati” (from “Deadwood” creator David Milch). The series revolves around San Diego family of surfers as they encounter a strange visitor, who acts as if he might be from another planet. In just two episodes, Milch has introduced a bevy of interesting characters and, as far as the language and dialogue goes, the show actually has a very “Deadwood” feel to it. There are a number of familiar faces in the cast, including Rebecca De Mornay (who is excellent as the family’s matriarch), Ed O’Neill, Luis Guzman and Luke Perry.
In the half-hour comedy category, “Flight of the Conchords” follows Jemaine and Bret, two aspiring musicians from New Zealand, as they navigate New York City. It’s a musical of sorts, as the duo occasionally break out into quirky songs that relate to whatever is going on in their life. The premiere was quite funny, especially the song Jemaine sings to a girl at a party. If the Barenaked Ladies had developed a sitcom (and never released “One Week,” which made them too popular) and enlisted Wes Anderson to direct, it might have turned out like this.
So far, so good.
…here’s a handy guide to get you back up to speed.
1) I’ll start with the lamest of them all: Batman will be riding a Bat-Cycle. ‘Nuff said, really.
2) Batman’s suit has undergone a serious upgrade, and while it’s dangerously close to falling into Schumacher territory, it certainly works.
3) Anthony Michael Hall as The Riddler? The Scarecrow returns? It’s possible, but both still rumors at this point in time.
4) And finally, a spy report from the set of “The Dark Knight,” where the insider not only gives details on a key scene from the movie, but also talks a lot about Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Last night’s episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” started with the contestants being awakened by the military at 6 a.m. Aaron, of course, had cramping legs and needed help getting up. And Bonnie, of course, was in the shower at the time the bugles sounded, meaning she had to run through the dorm in a towel. Yeah, tell me that wasn’t planned!
Anyway, for the first time ever in Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsey told the contestants they would be cooking breakfast for the Army and Navy soldiers. This played right into the Red team’s strengths, because Julia is a waffle house cook. So though there were a few glitches on the Red side with uncooked potatoes, for the most part Julia led her team to victory as the Blue team could not get their shit together. So as a punishment, the dudes had to peel potatoes and onions all day while the ladies were helicoptered to a Navy ship to have lunch with Ramsey.
Meanwhile, Aaron passed out in the kitchen while peeling potatoes….and was rushed to the hospital. We’ve all had enough of this guy by now, and later in the show Ramsey phones Aaron in the hospital to tell him that since he’s been diagnosed with a serious illness, he can’t return to the show. They never say what’s wrong with Aaron, so we’re kind of left hanging. Hopefully he’s okay and can get back to work soon at the retirement community. He surely wasn’t going to win this thing anyway.
The guys elected Brad their team leader for the next dinner service, though Rock seemed pissed that it wasn’t him. In all, the guys did a much better job minus Aaron at the dinner service. The ladies, meanwhile, had a few issues. The biggest were Joanna serving, or almost serving, rancid crabmeat. Ramsey was shouting at her that she could have killed someone. Then Jen made a bad mistake of taking spaghetti out of the trash and washing it again because they didn’t have time to boil up more.
Julia was smart enough to stop Jen before they served it.
The bottom line about the dinner service? Not many entrees made it out, and people started leaving.
Soon enough, Ramsey shut down the kitchen and declared the Blue team the winners by a slight margin. So he sent the ladies to their dorm to determine which two would be nominated for elimination. Joanna rightfully nominated herself, and after Melissa, Bonnie and Jen agreed that Julia should be the second nominee because, well, she’s a Waffle House cook and knows nothing about fine dining, Jen winds up stepping up to the plate and making herself the third nominee. First of all, nominating Julia is positively ridiculous. Ramsey likes her and the fact that she stepped up and led her team at breakfast. So what if she’s never made a creme brulee? Melissa, in that annoying New Yawk accent, was up on her high horse saying “It took me ten yee-ahs to get to this point.” I seriously hope she fucks up next week and gets booted.
Okay, so then it was down to Jen, Julia and Joanna. Julia was sent back to safety, and Ramsey picked Joanna and her rancid crab to go home. Really, that was the obvious choice because it was such a crucial mistake. Just like the fish last week, I could smell the rancid crab through the TV.
Now that Aaron is gone, the ratings are being left to Bonnie…..last week they had her in panties and a little t-shirt. Last night, it was a towel, and later in a bikini getting into the hot tub. More skin next week? I guess we’ll see, and I’ll see you good people next Tuesday.
Remember “The Loop”?
It was a funny little sitcom that premiered on Fox in March 2006, starring Bret Harrison as Sam Sullivan, a young airline executive struggling to find the middle ground between work and play. It wasn’t what you’d call groundbreaking or anything – in fact, plot-wise, each 30-minute episode tended to play out like your average wacky teenage comedy – but the performances by Harrison and his co-stars, Mimi Rogers and the invaluable Philip Baker Hall, caused it to rise way above the average. Less utilized but still funny was Joy Osmanski as Harrison’s assistant, who, when assigned to perform menial tasks (like, say, rifling through a dumpster), never failed to mention how much education she had…and where it had gotten her.
There was a lot to like about “The Loop.” It had a very “Scrubs”-like vibe at times, particularly in the office sequences. In fact, because of this, the producers decided that the show needed to be retooled to focus more on Sam’s work and less on his home life. To be fair, that was mostly wise; watching Sam interact with his superiors – one a gruff taskmaster (Hall), the other a man-eater (Rogers) – was where the fun of the show was. So out the door went Sam’s two sexy female roommates, Lizzy and Piper…but, unfortunately, with the disappearance of Piper, so went the possibility of Sam ever having his longtime unrequited crush on her ever come to anything. And that sucks. Sucking worse, however, was keeping the character of Sully, Sam’s slacker brother; he serves more as a plot device than anything else, invariably doing something stupid that gets Sam in trouble. Better they should have kept the romantic angle with Piper. But at least the process of increasing the amount of time Sam spends at work means that they’ve expanded the role of Darcy somewhat. Dare we suggest a liaison between her and Sam…?
If so, it’s liable to be little more than a one-night stand. Now that the show’s finally back on the air, you can hardly hear the dialogue for the sound of Fox yelling, “Dead show walking!” Not that I’m not glad that it’s back, but, geez, you almost have to wonder if doing a second season of the series resulted in some sort of tax write-off for the network. I mean, look at these facts:
1) After a relatively successful first season, Fox declined to put “The Loop” on the Fall 2006 schedule, instead announcing that they’d be doing a 13-episode second season in the spring.
2) In November 2006, Fox announced that the 13-episode order had been cut to 10.
3) The spring schedule arrived…and “The Loop” wasn’t on it; new reports indicate that the show will be airing in early summer.
4) In February, it was announced that Harrison had signed on as the lead in a pilot for a new drama for The CW entitled “Reaper.” Uh-oh. It’s never a good sign for a show’s future when its star is already planning for his next gig.
5) While still waiting for the Season 2 premiere, Fox announced the Fall 2007 schedule…and – surprise, surprise – “The Loop” wasn’t on it.
So, yeah, “The Loop” is back on the air…but, at the rate Fox is blowing through the new episodes (two every Sunday night), it’ll be gone pretty soon. So enjoy it while it lasts…and if you think about it, drop Fox an E-mail and ask them why they treated it so damned poorly.
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