Author: Will Harris (Page 217 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.

TV DVD QT, Vol. 1

September 29, 2006 /

With multiple seasons of TV shows coming out on DVD, it’s gotten to the point where there’s only so much you can say. I mean, is “What’s Happening: Season 3″so dramatically different from Season 2…? Since we don’t want to let these releases go by without a mention if they’re being sent to us, however, it just makes sense to start up a new feature on Premium Hollywood: TV DVD QT.

Let’s get rolling, then, shall we…?

Hart To Hart – The Complete Second Season: Self-made millionaire Jonathan Hart (the ever-suave Robert Wagner) and his super-hot wife, Jennifer (Stefanie Powers), manage to get wrapped up in more thefts and murders than any normal couple ever would, inevitably solving every mystery that crosses their path…with the help of their stogie-smoking manservant, Max (Lionel Stander), of course. The plots are often ridiculous, but the chemistry between Wagner and Powers makes the show consistently fun to watch. No special features. Booooooo!

Bewitched – The Complete Fourth Season: Few people fell in love with the “Bewitched” film starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman, but at least it kickstarted the release of the original TV series on DVD. The fourth season still has Samantha Stevens (Elizabeth Montgomery) teamed up with her original Darrin (Dick York), and their daughter Tabitha (Erin Murphy) continues to grow up…and cause mischief with her powers. This is the last season we see Aunt Clara, due to actress Marion Lorne’s passing. Best episode? As ever, it’s one featuring Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur: “The No-Harm Charm.” No special features. Hisssssss!

The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Fourth Season: What else do you need to know besides the fact that it stars Bob Newhart? Well, how about the fact that most of the original cast comes back to do audio commentary…? Newhart and his TV wife, Suzanne Pleshette, do commentary on “The Longest Good-Bye” with guest star (and Pleshette’s husband) Tom Poston, while Newhart and co-star Marcia Wallace (she played Carol the receptionist on the show…but you may know her as Edna Krabapple on “The Simpsons”) chat on “Who Is Mr. X?” Even one of Newhart’s most famous patients, Mr. Carlin (Jack Riley), shows up to talk about “Over the River and Through the Woods.” Good times and funny stuff.

The Flintstones – The Complete Sixth Season: It’s the last season of this venerable animated sitcom, but you’ll know it as “the one with the Great Gazoo.” Still, you can’t say it was an example of jumping the shark; even in its last year, “The Flinstones” still had several brilliant episodes, including appearances by Tony…sorry, Stoney Curtis and, as it happens, both Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York from “Bewitched.” It’s also the year of the Way-Outs, as well as when Pebbles and Bam-Bam sing “Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sunshine In.” No booing or hissing here; this set does have special features – a featurette on the series and its tie to popular culture, as well as one about the history of the Great Gazoo – but you probably won’t watch either of them more than once.

External TV, Reviews, TV, TV DVDs

Jericho, Episode 2: Fall On Me

September 27, 2006 /

WARNING: If you missed this episode, head over to CBS’s Innertube and watch it now. Otherwise, we’re getting ready to spoil it all to hell for you.

I won’t lie to you, it never occurred to me that, when Episode 1 ended, Emily had run out of gas; I thought she was just freaked out because she’d come across a road covered with dead birds…but given that Episode 2 begins with her walking down the road with a gas can, I guess she HAD hit “E.” Anyway, Episode 2 is full of a few too many coincidences for my liking, but let’s look at the highlights before I start bitching too much.

Jake and Robert realize simultaneously that the townsfolk are gonna need fallout shelters…and fast. The radiation’s blowing in from Denver, and it ain’t gonna be good when it gets there. But Robert knows a rather suspicious amount about radiation…so much so that it’s clear that at least a few people are getting skeptical of his claim that “I was a cop in St. Louis, and we got a lot of training after 9/11.” Sure, dude. In no way does that sound fishy. (We do discover that he’s got a wife and kids, though, so whoever he is, at least he’s got a relatively stable home life.) It’s clear that a rain storm filled with lots of radioactive material is gonna arrive in about two hours time, and anyone who’s not undercover is gonna be in serious trouble. (Although “Jericho” isn’t by and large a funny show, there’s at least one laugh to be had when it’s discovered that there isn’t a single piece of information about radiation or atomic bombs anywhere in town that isn’t dated circa 1957. Nice pamphlet about “The Dangers of Fall-Out”!) Much of the episode is spent trying to figure out how to fit everyone in town into the two shelters, one under Town Hall and the other under the medical clinic…and it gets even worse when the one under the clinic turns out to be uninhabitable due to lack of ventilation. The only viable alternative is to have people go deep into the town’s salt mines, then dynamite the entrance shut and have someone come by post-storm and help them get out again. And on the topic of people knowing a suspicious amount about certain things, Jake sure knows a lot about how to set up explosive charges…

The local bar provides us with a few bits of information this episode. The accountant who was in town to audit a local farmer – yeah, she was in the first episode, but not even long enough for me to reference her appearance – asks the bartender of her being stuck in Jericho post-bomb, “Do you think God hates me?” Jake’s brother, Eric, finally gets to say something besides “sounds good, Dad” when he shows up and informs several pool-playing yahoos of the wonders of death by radiation poisoning; we also discover that he isn’t as happily married as we might’ve thought when he locks lips with Madame Bartender. We also get a few minutes here and there with young Dale, who’s apparently got the hots for his snooty classmate, Skyler…and while it might not be entirely mutual, by episode’s end, it looks like they might have more in common than they used to. And Jake’s dad suffers some sort of attack, but it’s not clear what kind.

Emily gets a lot of screen time when, during her stroll for gas, she’s picked up by the two escaped convicts masquerading as sheriff’s deputies. (Turns out the real deputies are in the trunk.) I’m pretty sure most real law enforcement officers don’t have handlebar mustaches like one of those guys did, but whatever. Emily eventually does figure out they’re not the real deal, courtesy of one of the aforementioned too-convenient coincidences; they leave her alone in the car, and while she’s by herself, someone in the sheriff’s department just happens to say over the radio how two convicts are on the loose and might have stolen a vehicle. Once she hears this, though, she begins to develop a plan, taking them to the Richmond farm, where Bonnie Richmond – who’s deaf but can read lips – assists her in getting a gun and sneaking out an upstairs window, eventually making her way back to the patrol car to use the radio and call for help. The good news: one of the channels she broadcasts on is being listened to by Jake, who bails out of the mine and sets off the explosion to seal them in before heading off to save Emily. The bad news: another channel she uses is being listened to by the fake deputies. Fortunately, right about the time they hear her, Jake arrives, and between the two of them, the two guys get dead real quick…and just in time for Jake, Emily, and Bonnie to get into the basement before the storm hits.

The ending of the episode provides a moment just as chilling as the one provided in the first episode. It’s set up when Robert, who’s manning the radio, picks up a message in morse code…but instead of telling anyone what he’s heard, he pretends to have heard nothing. Later, however, he puts a map of the U.S. on the wall, and he begins by placing tacks on both Denver and Atlanta, indicating the sites of known bombs…but, then, he places a tack on Chicago…and one on Philadelphia…and one on San Diego. As the episode fades out, we’re on a close-up of his hand, reaching in to get another tack…and another…and another.

Yikes.

Jericho, TV

Heroes, Week 1: Meet The Gang

September 25, 2006 /

Welcome to NBC’s live-action comic book…and say “hello” to the characters:

* Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimigliai) is a home health-care worker for a dying man who dreams of jumping off a building and flying…but, more realistically, he dreams of dating the dying man’s daughter. Naturally, she’s already seeing someone. His brother, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar, formerly known as TV anti-hero Jim Profit), would just as soon Peter not bother him with either dream, given that he’s pursuing a political career. You can therefore imagine that Nathan’s even less excited about his mom getting arrested for shoplifting. He’s so annoyed at it all that he essentially tells Peter that if he thinks he can fly, then maybe he should jump…but when he does, it’s Nathan who suddenly flies up to save the plunging Peter. Unfortunately, the episode ends with Nathan losing his grip on his falling brother…

* Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) is a single mom in Las Vegas who pays the bills – including those of her genius son’s private school – by gettin’ nekkid on a webcam. She’s got this strange problem where her reflection seems to have a life of their own. She’s also got some tough folks are after her, thanks to her having borrowed money from the mob to keep her son in school. They’re taken care of in quick order, however, when the aforementioned reflection seems to come alive…and kill the mobsters. Or has she done it herself, and the actions of her reflection are less a power than a psychosis? Hmmmmm…

* Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere) is a high school cheerleader who’s developed a tremendous increased healing factor – a la Wolverine, if you want to make the comparison – and is constantly testing the limits of her abilities…but, that having been said, she’s also really, really freaked out by them, so you half suspect she’d be just as happy if her last words were, “Well, looks like we found my limit.” She tries to get the assistance of a longtime school chum to help her in gauging her abilities, but the chasm of popularity between them starts gets in the way…until she lunges headlong into a factory fire to save several firefighters. By episode’s end, she’s only sure of one thing: she’s gotta be adopted.

* Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) is officially my hero…and he’s gonna be the hero of every geek who watches the show. He’s well-versed in science fiction and superhero lore, and he’s downright giddy about his newfound ability to do some crazy shit with the space-time continuum, including stopping time and teleporting himself. First stop: the women’s bathroom. (Where else?) But when he clears his mind, stares blankly at an advertisement for New York City, and suddenly finds himself standing in Times Square, his reaction is so authentic that you’re almost as excited as he is!

* Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera) is a junkie artist…one who just so happens to be dating the daughter of the dying guy that Peter’s nursemaiding…and he’s going nuts because he seems to have developed the ability to paint the future. She wants to help him, but he’s too busy freaking out…so much so that he intentionally O.D.’s after filling a canvas with the image of an apocalypse in New York.

* And, lastly, tying the whole bunch together is Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy). A college professor in India, Mohinder believes in the human genome project and feels that mankind may well be standing on the threshold of recognizing the heights human potential…but, then, he got that from his father, who feels the same way. Make that “felt,” since Mohinder discovers that his father has died mysteriously. Concerned that Pops might well have been in possession of important scientific information, Mohinder goes to his father’s residence in India and finds that it’s in the process of being raided; after swiping some of his papers, he then flies to his father’s residence in New York City and finds that his father had been tracking something on a map. He also finds a tape, but we don’t get any scoop on what’s on it. It must be pretty important stuff, though, because Mohinder decides to stick around NYC, getting a job as a cab driver…and not long after doing so, a fellow hops into his car, knows who he is, and freaks Mohinder out enough to jump out of the cab and make a run for it.

What’s coolest so far is how it all ties together, not least of which because everyone witnesses the same eclipse. I mean, Isaac is watching the news and sees the report about the fire where Claire’s rescued the firefighter, Mohinder picks up Peter in his cab, and the fellow who scares Monhinder to death…? That’s Claire’s dad. The preview for upcoming weeks would seem to indicate that the bond between them all is even stronger than we’ve seen thus far.

Wow. One week in, and I already want to know how it ends.

External TV, Heroes, TV

Jericho, Episode 1: And so it begins…

September 20, 2006 /

It’s the first episode, so it’s a long one, kids…

Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) arrives in Denver, Colorado, by train, then – in a parking garage neighboring the station – uncovers a car. At a glance, the car looks like it’s been under wraps for some time…and it’s confirmed when Jake drives from Denver over to his hometown of Jericho, Kansas, and gets a rousing reception from everyone he sees. He’s decidedly elusive about where he’s been, however; he tells one person he’s been playing minor-league baseball, another that he’s been in the Navy. He offers the latter explanation to his ex-girlfriend, Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott); she’s not selling what he’s buying, but when she asks for the truth, he offers only silence. It turns out that Jake’s returned home to visit his grandfather and ask his family for money; his mother (Pamela Reed) is thrilled to see him, but he receives scorn from both his father (Gerald McRaney) and brother (Kenneth Mitchell) based on his past reputation for squandering both his money and his opportunities. Disheartened, Jake and his mom go to visit Jake’s grandfather…who, we quickly learn when they show up at a cemetary, is deceased. After the graveside visit, Jake’s ready to hit the road…so ready that even his mom can’t convince him to do otherwise; meanwhile, just as Jake’s driving out of town, a bus full of schoolkids from Jericho – chaperoned by their teacher, Mrs. Lisinski (Sprague Grayden) – are returning from a fieldtrip. Suddenly, her cell phone goes out…

…Jake’s radio goes abruptly to static…

…TV signals all over Jericho cut out…

…and, as as a couple of little children are playing outside, one of them spots a horrifying sight in the distance: a mushroom cloud, right in the general vicinity of Denver.

At this point, several different stories begin to unfold simultaneously. The bus hits a deer and crashes. Jake and another driver, both understandably distracted by the sight of a mushroom cloud in the distance, run right into each other…and Jake’s the only one that makes it out alive. Teenager Dale Turner (Erik Knudsen) finds an answering machine message from his mother…one that’s interrupted by the nuclear blast. Jake’s dad – who, by day, is Mayor Green – begins to round up the troops and maintain calm in Jericho…a Herculean task, given that everyone’s panicking, particularly the parents of the kids on the bus. He sends the sheriff and a few of his deputies out to search for the bus.

As Jake attempts to stumble back to Jericho, bearing a nasty wound on his forehead from his wreck, he comes across a pair of kids from the bus who plead with him to come back and help them. Back in town, all phone service is out and no-one’s responding on the police radio; people are on the verge of rioting and looting. We meet a new resident of the town: Robert Hawkins, a former cop from St. Louis who immediately leaps into the fray to attempt and assist the police. Mayor Green visits a local eccentric named Oliver, who has the only ham radio in town, in order to try and contact someone beyond Jericho and confirm or deny that Denver was only city to have been bombed…and, then, the power goes out all over town.

Jake makes it to the bus, where he finds that a little girl suffered major throat trauma when they crashed; he surprises both the kids and Ms. Lisinski – make that Heather – by performing an emergency tracheotomy and saving the girl’s life. Meanwhile, it looks like the sheriff has found the kids, until we realize that the bus he’s on used to be full of convicts…and is now empty; moments later, he’s shot and killed, his uniform stolen by an unseen party. D’oh! Dale finally stops listening to his mother’s answering machine message in the darkness of his house, taking it over to the Green’s house and playing it for them. “I’m so sorry, Dale,” says Mrs. Green, “I didn’t realize your mother was in Denver.” His heart-stopping reply: “She wasn’t. She was in Atlanta.”

Jake starts the bus and, even with what’s clearly a pretty bad concussion, begins to drive the kids and their chaperone back to town…not that it’s such a great place to be. Dale’s trying his best to assist his employer at the grocery store in preserving her refrigerated and frozen goods – it’s obvious he sees her as a surrogate mother – but he’s pretty much the only person doing anything noble. The townsfolk are completely freaking out, trying to full their vehicles with gas and get the hell out of town. Hawkins offers the suggestion that they use highway lights to illuminate the otherwise-dark town, and it pays off; the sudden light momentarily stuns folks into stopping their panic, but it doesn’t last. Local mayoral candidate Gray Anderson uses the moment to rally the townspeople…and demand answers and solutions from the mayor. Green tries to calm them, but he’s got no answers to their questions. He gets a reprieve when Jake pulls up with the busload of kids, and, in the wave of excitement from the crowd, the mayor asks them to place their trust in him and he’ll do his best to get them the answers they all want.

Seems like a pretty uplifting ending, right? Nah. The episode actually ends with Emily, who’s been driving to pick up her fiancee, having to stop her car when the road is filled with the bodies of fallen birds. Breathlessly, she asks, “What’s happening?”

Yeah, right, like they’re going to answer THAT in the first episode…

External TV, Jericho, TV

Freeze frame!

September 20, 2006 /

If you’re a fan of ’70s unintentional camp, you won’t be able to resist this item:

1 hour of the very best freeze frame endings from the classic 70’s TV show C.H.I.P.S.! That’s right, this here disc cuts right to the chase, stringing together some of the most bizarre, out of context moments in TV history. This is a must have for any fan of weirdo videos and one of the most relaxing meditations ever put on tape. And we dare you watch it all in one sitting.

TV, TV DVDs

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