Author: Jason Zingale (Page 102 of 154)

“Drive” cancelled: The Minear/Fillion curse strikes again

April 25, 2007 /

Admit it. We all knew it was coming, but did you all think it would happen so soon?

Drive

According to sources at TV Guide, FOX’s new drama, “Drive,” has been prematurely cancelled after airing only four of its thirteen season one episodes. Centered around an illegal, cross-country car race, the show got off to a great start during its two-hour premiere and hasn’t slowed down yet. The premise alone is promising enough for anyone who enjoyed the first season of “Prison Break,” so its surprising to see that not as many people tuned in. Of course, rumor is that many were turned off by the fact that they knew FOX would cancel it, and so they didn’t want to engulf themselves in yet another television history where they would never see the conclusion.

The future of the show didn’t look good as soon as word got out that “Firefly” star Nathan Fillion was teaming up with show’s co-creator Tim Minear for a new series, but we all figured that FOX had learned its lesson the first time around. Both Minear and Fillion are very talented people, so it sucks to see yet another collaboration between the two flushed away so quickly. Is two weeks (three episodes aired in the first week alone) literally all the time a network can afford for a new show to find an audience, because if so, they aren’t going to have enough shows to fill the voids come pilot season.

With “Family Guy” not quite as great as it used to be and “24” experiencing the worst season of its six-year history, what else does FOX have to compete with the other networks? Not much, which makes the cancellation of “Drive” all that more disappointing. And to think I was debating blogging this show…

Oh well, I guess we have the DVD to look forward to, and if we’re lucky, maybe Universal will buy the rights and make a movie like they did with “Serenity.” Wishful thinking? Probably, but it could happen.

External Entertainment, External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Civil War

April 24, 2007 /

If there’s one battle that’s bigger than the one between Vic Mackey and Aceveda, it’s the ongoing gang war between the Byz-Lats and the One-Niners. A regular bloodbath that has caused its share of problems (and business opportunities) for the Strike Team in the past, it also hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Another week, another hit out on one of the gang’s high ranking soldiers, but this time around, Vic is joined by his new replacement, Kevin Hiatt. Played by Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin, the guy’s only been around for one episode and I already like him. Heck, Vic could be taken away at the end of the year and this guy could easily pick up the reigns for the final season.

As one would expect, Vic doesn’t exactly warm up to Hiatt upon their introduction, but when Claudette tells him that she’s set up an appeals panel to review his “retirement” plan (apparently because she wants two teams: one under Vic, and the other under Hiatt), Vic quickly reverts to his best behavior. Unfortunately, Claudette was just lying so he wouldn’t cause any more friction during his final weeks on the force. Even the new guy is impressed by his methods, despite Claudette’s advice not to buy into his “good side.” Still, there’s no way Vic is leaving the show with only one more season to go, and I have a feeling Hiatt is going to eventually warm up to his coach to the point that he takes his side over Claudette’s. Plus, with Shan potentially getting a bullet to the head in the coming weeks, there will definitely be another spot open.

And speaking of open Strike Team positions, what’s this about Julian joining the team? Did the writers really feel the need to throw Michael Jace a bone after completely ignoring his character for the better part of the last two seasons? It’s a miserable prospect, considering Julian doesn’t really belong in that kind of environment, but who knows, maybe it will all be for the better. They sure as hell don’t have plans to bring back Tavon or Army any time soon, and with Tina transferred out of Farmington, and Danny promoted to sergeant, well, there’s really nothing else for the guy to do.

While the Strike Team work the Byz-Lat case, Dutch and Billings investigate a rapist/murderer who carves the words “Go Home” on his victims. Another classic villain for old Dutch Boy to track down, and one that is sure to continue through the coming weeks. Of course, it may take longer with Billings as his partner, who says things like “I love the smell of underage sexual assault in the morning” and is worried that people will take it the wrong way. Um, how could you possibly take it any other way?

External TV, The Shield, TV

Dont worry, be happy

April 23, 2007 /

…or in Ari’s case, an emotionless prick. Seriously, though. What was with Ari this week? Apparently feeling the weight of Vince’s “break-up,” the dude just isn’t the same. First he saved his assistant Lloyd from certain rape (conceding a multi-million dollar signing), and then he couldn’t even fire an inept employee (apparently his favorite thing to do) because the guy mentioned something about his recent break-up with his girlfriend.

Mrs. Ari definitely knows the score, as she tells their marriage counselor that she thinks her husband is depressed (he hasn’t eaten a full meal in a week), but Ari just uses the moment as a chance to unleash yet another great Ari Gold rant. Of course, his wife is right, and when he suddenly breaks in the middle of his office (crying, even), Ari calls an emergency with his counselor to get some immediate help. She seems to think that his more recent experience with emotions (like guilt and compassion) are good for the usually emotionless agent, but Ari doesn’t like the new transformation – “I don’t want to evolve. I want me. I like me.” And like that, he’s back. Here’s hoping Ari either gets back with Vince real soon or learns how to cope with his emotional outbreaks, because it was pretty emasculating to see Ari in that situation.

Moving on, Vince and Eric are officially in hot water with Amanda. And before I continue, can I just say one thing? Carla Gugino is smoking hot! Okay, that’s better. Back to Amanda, it seems she’s a lot tougher than we originally thought, refusing to back down from Vince’s runaround about the Sam Mendes film. She wants a decision by the end of the day, and Vince and Eric agree as long as they can read the script one last time. Problem is, no one likes the script the second time around, and it seems Vince only agreed to the project because Amanda was so convincing in her sales pitch.

When Vince tells her this, she doesn’t believe him, but he urges that it’s hard to say no to someone so “cute.” Wait, did he just say the c-word? I didn’t think guys were allowed to say that. No, she’s HOT in my book (and Vince’s too). Heck, even Amanda finds the wording more than a little interesting, and when she calls Vince back later in the night for some clarification, she mentions that there’s definitely some sexual tension between the two. Amanda doesn’t like sexual tension (who does?) and so she makes Vince an offer he can’t refuse: have sex with your hot new agent. It would be silly to think that Vince would decline, and by the looks of next week’s episode, he doesn’t, but we all know what happens when Vince gets involved with a girl he likes, and that only means one thing: the return of Ari Gold.

Entourage, External TV, TV

Bullz-Eye’s Badass Bracket: Final Match

April 19, 2007 /

It started with 32 competitors. Now it’s down to the final two.

It’d be nice to write something original for once, but the fact remains – Indiana Jones has surprised us yet again. After upsetting #1 seed Jack Bauer in the first round and then steamrolling over the likes of Doc Holliday, John McClane and Maximus, the archaeologist-turned-adventurer will now face off against his most formidable opponent yet: Batman.

Sure the Dark Knight has been just as much of a wild card in this competition as his challenger, bouncing the bracket’s other #1 seed Dirty Harry in the Sweet 16 while also knocking off staff favorite Tony Montana, but he hasn’t advanced to the final match quite as easily as Indy. It’ll be interesting to see how the two iconic heroes match up, specifically because they’re so similar in so many ways. And before you declare shenanigans on this whole bracket, remember one thing: none of us ever thought either one of these guys would get this far.

Click here to check out how the entire tournament progressed, and then vote for your favorite badass!

External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Movies, TV

Catch-22

April 18, 2007 /

With the tension still building around Charlie’s supposedly imminent death, I thought the time had finally come after seeing that arrow pierce his neck in the opening minutes of the episode. Then I realized that Desmond was probably just having one of his crazy flashes and, alas, I was right. Still, if you’re going to be written off of a show, that’s definitely the way to go. I’m still hoping that someone figures out a way to break Charlie’s island death curse, but if they do decide to kill him, we’d better get something twice as cool as that. No lazy gunshot wounds or dragged-out death scenes. Something quick and to the point, and perhaps most importantly, shocking as hell.

The rest of the episode was pretty tame, but I really dug that the flashback sequences were kept to a minimum. The action that takes place on the island is far more interesting than what happened to these characters before they arrived, and with the season finale rapidly approaching, it’d be wise to keep the background story to a minimum. As such, we didn’t really learn too much about Desmond than we already knew. However, we did discover a few things:

1) Desmond was a monk (for like a week), before getting kicked out
2) That’s why he says “brother” so much
3) A fellow monk believes that God has “much bigger plans” for him
4) He was once engaged to marry a girl named Ruth
5) He met Penelope while loading cases of wine into her car

That’s about it on the flashback front, but after experiencing the aforementioned prophecy of Charlie dying in the woods, Desmond sets out to recruit the same survivors (Charlie, Hurley and Jin) that were with him on the trek across the jungle so that nothing about the future changes. Including the helicopter crash that they all experience while telling campfire stories on the shore, and the body that comes parachuting out of it. Desmond thinks it’s Penny, and his belief is almost confirmed when they find an abandoned backpack in the woods with a dead satellite phone, a copy of “Catch-22” (in German?), and a picture of Desmond and Penny.

And then it happens: Charlie steps on the tripwire and activates the arrow, but this time Desmond pushes him out of the way. The look on Charlie’s face is priceless, and you could say that he’s more than a little pissed off that Desmond hid that little nugget from him in order to coerce him to join the journey. Still, Charlie’s safe, and that’s gotta make him feel a little better. It doesn’t take much longer to find the pilot hanging from her parachute in a tree, but when he removes the helmet, it’s not Penny starring back at Desmond, but rather some exotic woman who knows his name. I thought it was Ruthie at first (why would they bother with that subplot if they weren’t going to revisit it later on, but that definitely wasn’t her). Who it is we still don’t know, but I have a feeling we’re going to find out in the coming weeks.

External TV, Lost, TV

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