NBC may not be King of the Nielsen Ratings just yet, but we know good television when we see it, and the Peacock has returned in full force with a dominating presence that includes the top three shows and five of the top six. HBO, on the other hand, is experiencing the opposite, with the departure of “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” and “Rome.” Add to that the fact that our list features a whopping 10 new entries — five of which are freshmen — and you’ve got one heck of a Power Rankings shakeup. Much of this has to do with so many shows being on hiatus until next year, but whatever the cause, it’s nice to see some much-needed change to a usually familiar lineup. And, hey, don’t miss the list of our favorite shows which are currently on hiatus (and are therefore ineligible for the Top-20), our farewell to “The Sopranos,” and our stable of Honorable Mentions.
Check out the list here, then come back and let us know how we did…or if we missed any of your favorites!
Whether you’re a casual TV viewer or a full-fledged couch potato, you probably know about the WGA writer’s strike that’s currently gripping the entertainment industry. Even at the risk of having both my livelihood and my viewing habits upset, as a writer myself (albeit not of scripts, although I do have a few projects I’ve been working on), I’m unequivocally on the side of the Writer’s Guild members in this battle; I’d prefer that it come to a conclusion sooner than later, of course, but when it comes right down to it, I want it to last until the writers get a decent share of the profits from the material they’ve worked so hard on. Besides, like I don’t have enough TV-DVD sets to hold me over ’til it reaches an agreeable conclusion…?
If you don’t really know what’s going on, there are plenty of places to get the scoop from a journalistic perspective, but I think you’ll get much more insight if you take info straight from the horse’s mouth, i.e. from some of the individuals who are actually doing the striking, and the best place to start is at at Mark Evanier’s blog. I don’t think I’ve seen a more succinct explanation anywhere as to why the striking writers are, well, in the right.
For the latest and greatest (or most depressing) updates on how things are going, check out DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, where Nikki Finke provides about the best coverage that the ‘net has to offer. For alternate blog coverage, there’s also “Scribe Vibe” (Variety) and The Huffington Post.
First off, how cool was it to have Hiro say, “Previously on ‘Heroes,’” except in Japanese rather than English, with the logo translated accordingly as well?
Hiro’s doped up on opium back in the 1600s until his new lady love proves that women should never be underestimated. (How could that not occur to anyone? Surely that little fact was pretty well-documented even then!) Poor Hiro is still hopelessly naïve when it comes to believing in the inherent good in all people. Oh, well, at least it made for a good swordfight…not to mention a hell of an explosion! It didn’t occur to me ‘til Hiro was sorting through the rubble that Kensei had the power to heal and might well have managed to survive the explosion, but when things wrapped up, I began to think I’d been on the wrong track. (More on that in a moment.) I liked how it turned out that the final Kensei story was a metaphorical one, based on Hiro…and for as long and drawn out as I felt Hiro’s storyline in Japan was, it was still a very sad yet sweet ending. But, c’mon, how awesome was his reunion with Ando? Well, I mean, until Ando had to tell him that his dad was murdered, anyway; talk about your buzzkill.
So I’m thinking “making waffles” could be a new sexual euphemism…well, if it isn’t already one, that is. But swinging by Claire’s house for breakfast confirmed for me once and for all that AngelBoy is totally a stalker. Well, okay, maybe he isn’t, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t still relish watching him get comPLETEly freaked out when he realized who Claire’s dad was. Speaking of her pops, it looked like we weren’t going to be getting much of him this week after that scene at the beginning where HRG and Brother Voodoo were going all “burn, baby, burn” on Isaac’s paintings. My question, though, is this: was it really all that great that we got that Bennett family scene toward the end? It was pretty melodramatic and felt less like a “Heroes” moment and more like something from “Dawson’s Creek.”
Mohinder starts out sitting by Molly’s side, with Nikki…erm, Jessica…watching him every minute until Matt and Nathan show up to warn Bob about Matt’s dad. “Now is not the time to recant the past,” says Bob. Yeah? Well, when the hell is? Bob indicates that Matt might share his father’s power, even if he hasn’t exercised it to its fullest. Matt doesn’t believe it, so he goes to vent to Molly, who manages to hear him through her coma. Aw, what a “love conquers all” moment…rather the antithesis of the creeptastic moment when Jessica…erm, Nikki…was visited by her late husband. Actually, Matt’s scene with his dad looked for a second like it was going to get as melodramatic as his “I love you” scene with Molly before it took that rather dark turn toward the end…and, of course, it finally got there with the big Matt / Molly embrace which closed it. “Adam is…complicated,” sayeth Bob, during his decidedly dark conversation with Matt. Yeah, complicated and then some. So Linderman was Adam’s disciple? That little revelation spoke volumes about the dude. I’m sure a lot of people cheered when it was revealed that Nikki…erm, Jessica…oh, screw it, I’m gonna start calling her Nikica again. Anyway, when it was revealed that she was stricken with the Shanti virus, I know a lot folks were, like, “Goodbye to bad rubbish,” but, hey, lately, I’d rather see her story unfold than Claire’s.
Peter and his new Irish lass are in 2008, in a version of New York City that’s been ravaged by disease…the Shanti virus, to be specific. The government official painted a dark picture of the future, but as soon as Peter’s mother showed up, I immediately began wondering, “Is this whole thing just something that’s been constructed by Adam?” And then look who walks in at the end of the episode. Better yet, Adam is Kensei!
Even though Premium Hollywood has never claimed to be as much of a “guys portal to the web” as its parent site, Bullz-Eye.com, it still might seem a little iffy for me to recommend a documentary that puts a spotlight on Broadway musicals.
Look, here’s the deal: one of my first attempts at winning the heart of a girl found me trying to impress her by showing her that I was a fan of “Annie.” The bad news is that I didn’t get the girl, but, hey, the good news is that it’s been almost 25 years, and I still know most of the words to “We’d Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover.” But, anyway, my point is that I’ve had a soft spot for musicals longer than I’ve had a soft spot for The Beatles, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to you that I found a lot to enjoy about “Show Business: The Road to Broadway,” a documentary which follows the birth, premiere, and, in some cases, death of four new musicals.
“New,” of course, is relative to when the motion picture was filmed, which was over the course of the 2003 – 2004 Broadway season, and the four musicals from that particular season to receive the spotlight are “Wicked,” “Avenue Q,” “Caroline, or Change,” and “Taboo.” At the time, director Dori Berinstein had no way of knowing which would flop and which would prosper; obviously, history has revealed to even the most casual observer of Broadway musicals that “Wicked” turned out to be a wicked big hit, while those of us with a slightly more subversive sense of humor are probably also aware of the puppet-driven “Sesame Street” parody of “Avenue Q,” which proved to be enough of a success that it spawned a highly-touted run in Vegas. (It only ended up running for nine months, but, still, at the time, it was highly touted.) “Taboo,” based on the life and times of the ever-flamboyant Boy George, suffered as much from the ever-loud mouth of the woman who bankrolled it, Rosie O’Donnell, closing after only 100 performances, while “Caroline, or Change,” the musical from Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”) did just slightly better, making it to 136 performances.
With “Show Business,” however, the real fascination comes from watching these musicals along the way, including the casting process, the composition of the songs, the building of the sets, and the struggles against the critics. In fact, throughout the film, we pop in on a round-table luncheon of several of the New York theater critics, all of whom prove to be so catty and bitchy that they’re practically walking clichés; despite mouthing off about what’s hot and what’s not in their eyes, they still know their place, because after virtually all of them sit around trashing “Wicked,” one voice of reason in the crowd pipes up, “And it’s making a million dollars a week, so that shows you our influence!”
Perhaps we should’ve known that “Taboo” was doomed, if only because it was predominantly bankrolled by Rosie O’Donnell, who, at the press conference to introduce the musical to the New York crowd (it had already premiered in London, which is where she discovered it and fell in love with it), immediately started mouthing off about how it was essentially critic-proof. That’s as may be, but for a show to last for the long haul, it’s got to be something that the masses are willing to embrace…and God love Boy George, but it’s one thing for people to latch onto a guy wearing a dress, but it’s quite another for them to latch onto a guy who, at the same press conference, looked like this:
When “Taboo” inevitably flops, the person you end up feeling sorry for is its star, Euan Morton, who clearly loves the show (and, for the record, has a fantastic voice) and, when it closes, gets the dual slap in the face by being informed that A) he’s out of a job, and B) he has to leave the country, as his work visa is no longer valid. Ouch. Meanwhile, the “Avenue Q” guys are so down to earth that you’d be rooting for them even if you didn’t know how brilliantly funny their musical is; they’re proud of their work, but they’re not egotistical about it. One of the creators’ dads is caught on camera as they discover they’ve been nominated for several Tony Awards, and although he’s pleased as punch, he can’t help but point out with a grin, “This guy couldn’t hold a job at TCBY, and how he’s been nominated for a Tony!” “Caroline, or Change” didn’t really grab me as a musical, although its star, Tonya Pinkins, certainly came off as a pleasant, real individual; I was, however, instantly smitten with “Popular,” from “Wicked,” as sung by Kristen Chenoweth…like, to the point where I might have to download it from iTunes. But just that one song, I swear…
In addition to the four productions which receive the majority of the attention, there are occasional glimpses at other shows, too, including a montage which is intended to show that not every show is around for the long haul. Proof positive: “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All,” starring Ellen Burstyn, survived for precisely one performance, while “Bobbi Boland,” starring Farrah Fawcett, never even made it out of previews to have its formal debut. Oh, yeah, and there’s also a priceless clip from the 2004 Tony Awards which finds the unlikely duo of LL Cool J and Carol Channing presenting an award.
LL: “It’s time to read the nominees.” Carol: “I’m down with that.”
As God as my witness, she really says that. It’s awesome.
Anyway, “Show Business: The Road to Broadway” is really an interesting look at the trials and tribulations that a show goes through before, during, and after premiering on the Great White Way. If you’re a testosterone-pumped manly man, you probably won’t even be able to pick up the box, but if you’re comfortable in your masculinity and enjoy a good show tune mixed with a bit of high drama, you’ll definitely find it worth checking it out.
It’s a long scary day ’round my place, as I celebrate the final Scare of the Day for October by working my way through MGM’s awesome new box dedicated to that legendary scare-master, Vincent Price. I’ve actually been tackling one or two of these films as I’ve had the time, but I wanted to make sure they were all knocked out by the end of the day, so rather than wait ’til the wee hours to get this thing posted, I’m just going to update it as I go. I’ll make the acknowledgment right off the bat, however, that this is no way intended to be a comprehensive collection of all things Price; in fact, without even trying, I can think of half a dozen other horror films on his resume which are part of MGM’s Midnite Movies catalog. Does that mean we’ll get a “Volume 2” come next Halloween…? We can only hope.
Tales of Terror – Price found himself in the midst of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations plenty of times within his career, but few are more enjoyable than this trio of tales, directed and produced by the inestimable Roger Corman.
Though he’s teamed with Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone in the second and third segments, respectively, it’s in the first – “Morella” – where Price is truly the star. He plays Locke, a man who has spent decades mourning the death of his wife, who died in childbirth. When Lenora, the child in question, returns home after an absence of many years, she’s shocked to find the family mansion in disarray and her father but a shadow of the man he once was; of course, she’s even more shocked when she finds that Daddy’s been keeping the decomposing corpse of Mommy lying around for all this time. Somehow, father and daughter manage to reconcile, but in the end, it’s Moms who gets the last laugh.
The best of the three segments is unquestionably “The Black Cat,” which finds Lorre taking the lead role as Montresor Herringbone, a drunken lout who proves that just because you’re a drunk and a lout doesn’t mean you can’t be a clever – and deadly – son of a bitch. The entire story is played far more for laughs than horror, but the final shot is gleefully gruesome. Lorre goes all out with his drunk routine, though he probably had little choice in the matter if he wanted to match Price’s vigorously slimy performance as Fortunato, a pretentious wine connoisseur who ends up sleeping with Herringbone’s wife, the gorgeous Annabel (played by the gorgeous Joyce Jameson); the scene where Herringbone and Fortunato have a wine taste-off is, in and of itself, worth owning the film…if not this entire box set.
Though “The Black Cat” inspires quite a few chuckles, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” leads one to believe that Corman prefers to leave his viewers screaming rather than laughing. Here, Price plays the title character, a dying man who decides to provide a mesmerist by the name of Carmichael (Rathbone) with the opportunity of a lifetime: to hypnotize him at the moment of his death, to see if his passing can be prolonged via hypnotic suggestion. The experiment proves only half-successful; Valdemar remains in a half-dead / half-alive state, where his body is gone but his mind lives on, trapped within the lifeless vessel. Valdemar’s wife, Helen (Deborah Paget), and his longtime friend, Dr. Elliot James, demand that Carmichael release his subject, but Carmichael refuses, calling it the opportunity of a lifetime, providing him with the chance to find out what lies beyond this plane of existence. (You will not be shocked to discover that Carmichael soon gets the chance to learn about it first hand.) Rathbone is good and evil in his role, and Price’s ghostly voiceover is suitably spooky, making for a nice and creepy finale to three consistently enjoyable scares.
