Author: Will Harris (Page 216 of 261)

Will is a member of the Television Critics Association and has written for Decider.com, the Onion A.V. Club, The Dissolve, Indiewire, Rhino.com, TV Week Magazine, The Virginian-Pilot, Popdose.com, and EW.com along with writing for Bullz-Eye.com and Premium Hollywood.

Hanna Barbera titles for 2007…?

October 8, 2006 /

Animation super-dude Earl Kress has announced on his site – http://www.mynameisearlkress.com – that the following titles have been tentatively scheduled for release on DVD by Hanna Barbera in 2007:

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

Space Ghost and Dino Boy

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Season 1)

Wally Gator/Touche Turtle/Lippy the Lion (Complete Series)

Scooby Doo, Where Are You? (Season 3)

Quick Draw McGraw (Complete Series)

…and these dudes:

Not that I have any complaints about any of the above – particularly not my boys, the Banana Splits – but here’s one that’s MIA that I really want to see sooner than later:

External TV, TV, TV DVDs

Jericho, Episode 3: Love is the Fifth Horseman

October 7, 2006 /

First, let me apologize for the lateness of this blog; I was in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday, arrived home on Friday morning after haven taken a redeye, and was basically useless all day yesterday as a result. And second, let me apologize for the title of this post, which is referencing a Prefab Sprout lyric that most of you have probably never heard. (It’s from a song on Andromeda Heights, if that helps.)

So on with the show…

Finally, things begin with a feeling as dark as this series really should be, with people either trapped in a mine, waiting in a basement, or out in a thunderstorm. We also get an idea of exactly how much time has passed since the bomb (18 hours), which is something that we never got a feel for last episode. When Stanley Richmond finally makes it back to his house – it’s his basement that Jake, Ashley, and Bonnie are in (actually, it’s Bonnie’s, too; she’s his sister) – there’s considerable concern that his exposure to the possibly radioactive rain has begun to poison him. He seems okay, though, but he takes a dose of iodine for good measure and makes it to the medical clinic without showing any symptoms; they still want to give him a once-over, though, resulting in the funniest line of the episode: “I’m getting tired of being stuck with needles. They’ll be sorry when my spider-powers kick in!” (He also has a post-bomb meet-cute with the accountant who was trying to take his farm away; his flirting results in Madame Accountant getting the second funniest line: “Okay, but you still owe the IRS $130,000.”) It’s somehow apropos that the guy in the mine who starts having a loud and violent attack of claustrophobia is the one who ends up having a heart attack and dying, but you can see that the loss of someone like that would be disconcerting. As a result of his death, Mayor Green and his political rival, Gray Anderson, have a brief and well-warranted angry confrontation; Anderson makes a valid point that the clinic’s shelter should’ve been better maintained, but the mayor’s follow-up – that he’s causing more harm than good by attacking the man who’s trying to keep the town inspired and that he deserves to have his ass kicked for it – wins the argument hands down.

The combination of half a dozen tanks heading toward Denver and the tuning in of an Asian television broadcast that shows how many bombs have been dropped around the US (that’s right, Robert is now no longer the only one who knows) freaks the town out enough that they send people in four different directions, in an attempt to find out how far the damage extends. Jake’s discovery of downed planes and a blocked bridge on the way to Wichita sends him back to Jericho…but with a flight data recorder in tow. It’s as disconcerting as you’d expect to hear what’s contained on the recorder, but the news that Emily’s fiancee is still alive is the kind of news that sounds too good to be true. Eric’s continued affair with the bartender, even in the midst of everything that’s going on, seems downright cruel to his wife…but, then, she’s been nothing but cruel to him, so perhaps it’s warranted. Meanwhile, Robert’s coming off as really paranoid, and I’m looking forward to finding out just how much he knows…and why he feels like he can’t tell the rest of the town.

The ending is uplifting without being schmaltzy, and I’m back to believing that this show has major potential, but I’ll still close with two complaints:

1) I’m already over the teenage characters of the series; anyone who’s still concerned about social status and maintaining their cliques after the bomb drops deserves to die of radiation poisoning.

2) The choice of pop songs for the soundtrack sucks ASS.

External Entertainment, External TV, Jericho, TV, TV Dramas

Heroes, Week 2: Hiro Goodbye

October 3, 2006 /

Better to get the awful Hiro pun out of the way now, don’t you think?

So things start off not long after where Episode 1 ended, with Peter in the hospital as a result of having jumped off that building…but while Peter’s convinced he remembers seeing his brother Nathan flying up to save him, Nathan assures him that, no, he actually tried to kill himself. Nice work, bro. Cheerleader Claire wants to find out who her real parents are, but her dad – who clearly has some connection to these people developing superhuman abilities – tells her not to grow up so fast, that he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Moninder continues to be unable to go five minutes without someone breaking into his father’s apartment, but he does develop a friendship with his dad’s very cute next-door neighbor. I dunno, I just get this feeling she’s hiding something…and might well be in on all the secret goings-on. And when Hiro gleefully walks through the streets of New York, he’s shocked to find a comic book that reproduces the events that have led up to his arrival in the Big Apple…though we’re not entirely surprised to find out that it was written and drawn by Isaac Mendez, the artist who sees the future.

Dammit, I’m doing it again. Sorry, I’m trying to get more into the flow of doing these blog entries, so I hope you’ll forgive me as I get the hang of chatting as though you’ve already seen the episode; I’m still tempted to just recap what’s happened.

Okay, I grinned when it turned out that Nathan wasn’t just lying about having flown himself but, in fact, was completely leaving out the fact that they both flew; you could tell from the way the camera was moving that Peter was going to turn out to be standing in mid-air, but it was still a cool reveal. Niki’s story continues to be the least light-hearted of the bunch – hers is unfolding more like a horror movie – but at least she’s getting a new car out of the deal. Just don’t look in the trunk, for God’s sake. Claire’s clearly gonna break sooner than later and tell everyone about her powers, if only because she’s so pissed off over her bitchy cheerleader buddy lying and pretending that she saved that fireman last episode (that was an awesome shot, by the way, of Claire getting her neck twisted completely around after getting hit by a out-of-bounds football player)…but God only knows how Daddy’s gonna react to that, especially now that he’s swiped the videotape that documents his daughter’s abilities. He might be a loving father, but he comes across as so evil that you just know he could turn on Claire at the drop of a hat. Isaac continues to be a whiny junkie asshole, just as Hiro continues to be the guy you want to cheer for…which would explain why I actually said out loud “oh, shit, what are you doing?” when he happened upon Isaac’s lifeless body and promptly picked up the gun lying beside it. His powers continue to be the most powerful of the bunch; he’d better figure out how to use them quick.

There were quite a few more superhero touches to the show this week, including the frozen bodies with their tops of their skulls removed. It’s also cool to see Greg Grunberg (“Alias”) on TV again; he’s playing policeman Matt Parkman, a cop who’s developed the ability to read minds…and the inability to explain them to others, hence his getting arrested for knowing something he shouldn’t. “You told me!” No, dude, she only thought it.

So here’s a topic of conversation to along with any comments you might have: what other super powers would you like to see pop up on the show?

External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Dramas

Friday Night Lights premieres tonight…

October 3, 2006 /

…and in celebration of that fact, here’s what the stars and producers of the show had to say when Bullz-Eye got to ask them a quick pair of questions about the show:

Bullz-Eye: This is for all of you: do you feel a sense of hesitation about entering into the genre of TV shows spun off from movies?

Brian Grazer (producer): I produced the movie and worked on the movie for about thirteen years and struggled through…I guess about five different directors ‘til I got together with Pete Berg, who I felt – in order of priority – understood the movie, understood the culture of Texas, understood that it was about boys’ and girls’ identity in that period, and, finally, was about football…but he really, I felt, got the culture so well. I have some anxiety as a movie producer about having a movie then become a TV series. I’m very happy with the show – I thought Pete did a most outstanding job on the pilot – but there’s some tension on that.

Peter Berg (producer): I think that, Brian, if there is tension or anxiety about it, it’s recognizing that…well, we really were very happy with the film and happy with the pilot, and we’ve been very happy with the way the show’s begun to unfold, but we recognize the inherent limitations of television production, and we’re working really hard to try and maintain a certain level of quality. And I think that as long as we can continue to do that, we’ll be comfortable with the transition from film to television.

Kyle Chandler (“Coach Eric Taylor”): From our side, trying to reach that quality is the optimum job that we’re looking to do. As well, though, we’ve got a certain process that’s allowing us to try to capture that…which is giving us, as the actors, an immense amount of joy and challenges and responsibilities. But it’s a process that we’re all coming together on, we’re and figuring out that that quality is reachable, and that’s our goal. So we’ve got a tremendous challenge, but it’s there. We see the light. It’s just an amazing challenge

Connie Britton (“Tami Taylor”): And having worked in a lot of television in the past, and now working on this show, the process is so substantially different…and having worked on the movie “Friday night Lights” and seen how great the pilot came out in comparison to the movie – which was also amazing – it’s very clear that this is a different TV experience.

BE: And to close with a quickie, Peter, were you responsible for the line in the pilot praising the inspirational power of early Black Sabbath?

PB: (Laughs) Yes, I was. “Get your Black Sabbath on.”

CB: I remember that moment well. He yelled it out from behind the camera.

PB: It just popped into my head.

External TV, TV, TV Dramas

Turns out breaking up is surprisingly EASY to do.

October 1, 2006 /

Who doesn’t enjoy reading the dirt on a messy Hollywood break-up? I mean, hell, the entertainment media machine would come to a standstill if all romances were happily-ever-after storybook affairs. Leave it to Jim Parish, then, to put together a book that highlights the “best” of the bunch. Parish, whose last book tackled the life and times of some of Hollywood’s biggest flops (“Fiasco“), tackles the Tinseltown relationships that went belly-up, getting as current as Pitt-Aniston and Hawke-Thurman, but going as far as back as Hollywood’s glory days.

It’s an educational ride through cinematic history. You hear loads about Bogie and Bacall, but the tale of Humphrey Bogart’s third wife – Lauren Bacall was his fourth – is fascinating…if tragic. Mayo Methot was a substance abuser, but she also was the victim of paranoia and schizophrenia, resulting in her stabbing Bogie in the small of the back with a butcher knife and slamming his head against a concrete sidewalk. Yikes. There are also the tales of famed romances like Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra, and Orson Welles and Lana Turner.

Well worth checking out.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Gossip

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