Author: John Paulsen (Page 20 of 79)

Season Pass Deleted: “Dollhouse”

I’m sorry. I can’t take it anymore.

I watched three full episodes of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” and decided somewhere in the middle of the third episode that I couldn’t continue to watch the show. It didn’t help that the third episode had the dreaded troubled-pop-star-deals-with-stalker storyline, which has been done so many times before that it has become one of my biggest pet peeves. Bad stage production, bad singing, bad crowds…ugh.

The show has a solid premise — a business that rents out “dolls” which are programmed to suit the clients’ needs — and a pretty compelling macro storyline — a renegade doll on the loose and, separately, an FBI agent (Tahmoh Penikett) trying to find the dollhouse — but the week-to-week episodes just aren’t all that interesting. One week, the main character, Echo (Eliza Dushku) is an unconvincing kidnapping expert, the next she’s bait for a psychopath who likes to hunt humans. And last week she was a sassy backup singer who said things like, “You’re not okay…okay?”

Mind you, this is coming from a fan of Whedon’s work with “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly.” I was really rooting for this show to work, but for whatever reason — suspect acting, sketchy writing, poor continuity — it just doesn’t.

Silverman balks at Comedy Central’s budget cuts

The economic downturn is widespread. It’s even having an effect in the world of Sarah Silverman.

The show’s executive producers — Silverman, Dan Sterling and Rob Schrab — have threatened to quit after the cable network told them the budget for their series would be slashed by more than 20%.

At the center of the holdup is the proposed budget for Season 3. Citing cuts imposed on the network by parent company MTV Networks, Comedy Central had proposed that the trio bring back the Writers Guild of America Award-nominated show at about $850,000 an episode, sources said, down from the $1.1 million an episode for the show’s second season.

In broadcast, single-camera comedies are produced for about $1.5 million-$2 million an episode, and the budget for any series normally climbs from year to year.

Concerned they won’t be able to maintain the integrity of the show at the discounted price, Silverman, on behalf of the three executive producers, informed the network late last week that they can’t proceed with a third season. The move reportedly sent shock waves through Comedy Central’s executive offices, with top brass jumping into action to find a budget compromise that would keep the flagship live-action series on the air.

As of Friday night, the situation remained at a standstill. Both sides continued their back-and-forth during the weekend.

A 20% budget cut would be hard for anyone to swallow, but times are tough across the country. Everyone is having to do more (or at least the same) with less manpower, and Hollywood is no different. Let’s hope that they can come to some resolution that both sides can live with.

Battlestar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me

When this episode started, and Kara got into a conversation with some random dude in the bar, I was thinking — why are they introducing a new character at this point in the series?

My “twist-dar” went off when they failed to show her dad’s face in her flashbacks, and it really went off when he lit up a cigarette (after she reminisced about the “smell of tobacco” earlier in the episode). Then the meaning of Hera’s drawing was revealed and suddenly Kara and her “dad” were playing the “Battlestar Galactica” version of “All Along the Watchtower.”

Kara’s trip plodded along, but it was still quite intense, because the nature of her existence is still one of the big questions yet to be answered. This mellowness provided a nice balance to what was going on elsewhere on the ship, as the Chief made a bad, bad decision by trusting Boomer again. Roslin’s demeanor towards Tyrol was unnecessarily harsh, and she bears some responsibility for his actions. Boomer is (mostly) evil, a fact confirmed by her sexual encounter with Helo right in front of Athena. That has to be a tough pill for the Chief to swallow — he breaks her out of the brig and the first guy she screws is Helo? Ouch.

The scene where Boomer made her escape was one of the most nail-biting of the entire series. It was clear that the Chief didn’t know Hera was in the trunk because Boomer had to tell him to “be careful” with it. Still, he’s a dope for falling for her act again. Way to go, Chief.

So now Galactica has a hole in the side of the ship, and after weeks of intimating that the old girl was on her last legs, the ship is truly falling apart. Cavil has (or will have) Hera, and there are only three episodes left. We still need to find out the truth about Kara and the fleet needs to find some sort of home. They wouldn’t end the series with the fleet just drifting aimlessly in space…would they?

EW answers 8 lingering questions about the Oscars

EW.com asks and answers eight lingering (and burning) questions about the 2009 Oscars, including why Phillip Seymour Hoffman was wearing a stocking cap on a 75-degree, Southern California day.

Other interesting questions…

What was the motivation behind having five former winners introduce this year’s nominees in each of the acting categories?

Where was Jack Nicholson?

Was Beyoncé lip-synching during the musicals medley?

Who is Sato Masuzawa, the woman Sean Penn called his ”best friend” in his acceptance speech?

“Gossip Girl” prequel finds its star

It looks like Brittany Snow, best known for her role as Meg Pryor in “American Dreams,” will star as Lily van der Woodsen in the “Gossip Girl” spinoff/prequel, which will focus on the future Ms. van der Woodsen as she grows up in the 1980’s.

The spinoff centers on then-Lily Rhodes (Snow), who, after a falling-out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, Carol (Krysten Ritter), the black sheep of the family.

Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and education at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the San Fernando Valley she once made fun of and going to public school. Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the ’80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m looking forward to the prequel to “Gossip Girl,” but here I sit, looking forward to the prequel to “Gossip Girl.”

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