Category: Actresses (Page 176 of 258)

A belated look at “Knight Rider”

First off, my apologies for waiting until Wednesday afternoon to write up a movie that aired on Sunday night.

I really did try to get an advance look at NBC’s new 2-hour “Knight Rider” movie, but I was denied. This wasn’t just a case of my not having enough pull: no-one got a look at it beforehand. The stock answer for why screeners weren’t being made available was that the special effects were being worked on right up until the last minute, but, truth be told, someone should’ve spent less time on the effects and more time trying to figure out who this movie was being made for…but I’ll get to that.

So why did I wait so long to watch it? Well, you know how it is: Monday was President’s Day, my wife was off work, my kid was home with us, and, basically, the day got away from me. But you want to know why I didn’t watch it Tuesday, and…well, the truth of the matter is that I was scared.

My wife was battling a case of insomnia on Sunday, and she watched part of it without me; when I asked her how it was, she said, “Not good. The two leads didn’t have any chemistry, and David Hasselhoff is still one of the worst actors ever.” Fair enough…but I didn’t watch the original show for The Hoff. I watched it for The Car. But, still, reports on the flick kept popping up all over the ‘net, and they were all universally awful. More and more, I wondered if it was even going to be possible for me to enjoy this movie that I’d originally excited as hell about watching. After much delay, I finally decided that, as a professional critic, I was quite capable of rising above the opinions of others and could not only still manage to establish my own opinion about this film but, indeed, might possibly find something to like where others could not.

So I watched it.

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Jericho 2.2 – Well, hellooooooo, Mr. President!

You know, you’d think it would be awesome to get advance screeners of TV shows…and, okay, yeah, for the most part, it IS pretty awesome. But there’s one problem with it: you forget when shows are actually on. That, in case you were wondering, is why this entry is mysteriously appearing in the archives almost a week after the episode originally aired. Not that you’d know this without my telling you, since it’s actually been backdated to seem as though it was posted more or less on time, but I feel guilty enough about the ruse that I felt I needed to acknowledge it upfront.

There, now that’s out of the way. Now, let’s talk about how happy I am about the way “Jericho” is continuing to maintain this seriously dark tone.

It didn’t start dark, of course. The lighthearted breakfast scene with Stanley and Mimi was funny, thanks to Stanley’s well-intentioned but poorly-phrased observation, “That’s probably the most boring story I’ve heard in months.” It seemed a bit odd that the President’s team needed to land their helicopter in Stanley’s front yard to ask if “Condor” could make his speech on the front porch of the farmhouse. What, couldn’t they go through channels with the military instead of using the Whirlybird Express? But let’s stay on our original topic and keep talking about the Stanley / Mimi relationship. Once again, Stanley has proven to be a lunk-headed sweetheart, accidentally putting his foot in his mouth about who Mimi might invite to the wedding, then trying to backpedal by seeing if he might be able to use Jennings & Rall to find some of Mimi’s family. Last season, they might’ve CBS’ed things by miraculously discovering her mom or even a long-lost cousin, but not so this year: even with the resources of J&R, it’s a big ol’ goose-egg on the family front. It’s depressing, but I applaud the producers for not shoehorning in a happy ending.

Okay, back to the Presidential visit. Y’know, I realize that they were trying to show that the President’s men weren’t screwing around with their security measures, but it seemed a little over the top when one of them snapped at the local sheriff, “Sir, nobody told you to move.” Really? Not any respect for local law enforcement…?

Hawkins’s buddy, Chavez, got busted in his guise as Lieutenant Parker, which I think we all figured would happen sooner than later. I definitely like this new relationship between Hawkins and his wife, but I still find it weird that we haven’t heard so much as a whisper about their kids so far. By episode’s end, of course, Chavez was out of custody and on his way to Texas, but not before stepping up the mystery about this Project Boxcar.

As a Democrat, it probably won’t surprise you that I snickered at the suggestion that the new government would immediately attempt to rewrite the textbooks in order to make it look like America screwed up by not attacking the Russians during the Cuban-Missile Crisis and by pulling out of Vietnam too early. Do I really think the Republicans would do something like that? Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think so. But, then again, Bush got elected to a second term by riding on his post-9/11 high, so what do I know?

Okay, enough personal politics. How about the situation with the journalist? From “okay, I’m in” to “okay, I’m dead” just a few short hours. Now that’s what I call an effective cover-up. Again, though, I was shocked that he met his end as quickly as he did; I’d really anticipated that that plot thread would go on for several episodes. I guess this is another case of a short season paying off in terms of rapid-fire plot progression; there’s definitely no moss growing under anyone’s feet this time around. At least Writer Boy managed to leak the info to Jake about the progression of the Hudson River virus.

As things wrap up, Gray leaves for the constitutional convention in Cheyenne and grants Eric the status of interim mayor, and we get the return of the dastardly Goetz. Yep, he’s made good on his ominous assurance from Season 1 that Ravenwood would be called in to help the U.S. Government put the nation back together again. Boo, hiss, etcetera. Can’t wait for next week.

Jericho 2.1 – “We’re Baaack!”

Yeah, I know, I already declared “Jericho” to be back in my preview of Season 2. But now the show’s made the declaration itself during the opening credits of last night’s season premiere…in Morse code.

The resulting ratings must’ve made a lot of people really, really happy: it scored first with adults 25-54 as well as tying for first (with NBC) with adults 18-49. Not too shabby. The bigger question, of course, is whether or not the show can maintain that ratings momentum. If it doesn’t, however, it won’t be the fault of the onscreen goings-on…or, at least, that’s my perception after watching Episode 2.1.

When we last left the population of Jericho, they were engaged in battle with the people of New Bern. Instead of leaping back to the concluding moments of Season 1, however, we jump into a tête – à – tête between the leaders of the two sides – Jake Green and Phil Constantino – and get our first look at a scruffier, scarier looking Skeet Ulrich. I realize the fear of cancellation was rough on all of us, but, really, he’s looking a bit bug-eyed, don’t you think? Anyway, the talks between the two sides are moderated by Esai Morales, who plays this season’s major new character…and that pun was totally not intended, even if the name of Morales’s character is Major Edward Beck. As Beck stands by, we’re treated to a quick wrap-up of how the battle between Jericho and New Bern came to its conclusion…namely, via military intervention. There have been complaints that Morales doesn’t come across tough enough for the role he’s playing, but he seemed plenty gruff to me when the situation called for it.

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A Chat with “Jericho” executive producer Carol Barbee

Okay, it’s a week ’til the second season of “Jericho” premieres. Time to really start getting excited…

As regular readers of Premium Hollywood know, we’ve been fans of “Jericho” from the get-go. Yes, we laid it on the line and acknowledged when we didn’t love everything we were seeing – both myself and John Paulsen went so far as to channel our inner Stephen Colbert, each of us putting the show on notice at one point or another – but when the series came back from its network-imposed midseason hiatus, it came back with all thrusters firing. Naturally, CBS then proceeded to cancel the series….and, just as naturally, the show’s fans rebelled. Defying the law of averages, the fans won: CBS reversed its decision and renewed “Jericho” for a second season. Yes, it’s shorter this time around, earning only a seven-episode shot at Round 2, but based on what I’ve seen, the crunch has worked in the show’s favor.

I was fortunate enough to get the show’s executive producer, Carol Barbee, on the phone for a few minutes, and she offered up quite a lot of scoop about the upcoming season…and although I did make sure to follow CBS’s requests to keep mum about certain specifics within the episodes, you should be forewarned that there are still plenty of small spoilers sprinkled throughout. (Also, I promise that there’s less of me talking as the conversation progresses; she just asked my opinion, so I felt obliged to give it!)

Bullz-Eye: Hey, Carol, how are you?

Carol Barbee: I’m good! How are you?

BE: Battling a cold, but hanging on. It’s a pleasure to speak with you; I think we spoke for about five seconds during the TCA Press Tour.

CB: Yeah, that sounds about right. (Laughs)

BE: Well, CBS has sent me six of the seven episodes in Season 2 of “Jericho,” and from what I’ve seen, my first reaction is that, for as much as I already loved the way the show had taken such a significant upswing at the end of Season 1, it looks like you even managed to fix the few problems I still had with it!

CB: Oh, wow, I’m so glad to hear that!

BE: I have to be honest that circumstances have kept me from putting in the second disc, with episodes 4 – 6, but…

CB: (In a hushed voice) Oh…!

BE: …but now that I’ve finished the first three episodes, I’m chomping at the bit to watch them!

CB: Well, at some point, I want to hear the problems that you think we fixed, because that’s really good to hear.

BE: Okay, well, granted, a lot of those problems were well on their way to being fixed as the second half of the first season found the show evolving. Like, I know there was a whole lot of talk about how the show would be partly like “Little House on the Prairie,” and it had definitely begun departing from that. Which was good, because, y’know, with a premise involving nuclear bombs going off in the United States, it just seemed like it should’ve been a darker show.

CB: Yes, thank you!

BE: And I’m sure that, with its new 10 PM timeslot, that’s going to help with that.

CB: Yeah, I think so, too.

BE: Did you ask for the later timeslot for that reason, or was that something the network just gave to you?

CB: It was luck of the draw. I mean, honestly, it depended on what their new shows did, so we could’ve been on Sundays at 8 PM or Tuesdays at 10 PM or Fridays at 9 PM. So we were prepared for anything. But we’re thrilled to be a 10 o’clock show. I think we are a darker show, and I think that’s the right place for us.

BE: I know that Season 2 was originally going to take place in Jericho, Cheyenne, and New York, but how did the direction of the season change when you got a smaller episode order than you’d anticipated?

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