Category: TV Action (Page 112 of 145)

Bubble Watch: Veronica Mars, FNL, Studio 60 and more

May 11, 2007 /

With May sweeps wrapping up, it’s a good time to take a look at the status of a few shows and try to determine whether or not they’ll be renewed. I focused on shows that we don’t blog here at Premium Hollywood, because any news about those shows belongs in their respective blogs.

Granted, these are personal favorites, but you’re welcome to post your own news about shows I fail to mention. I’m not sure how some of these shows ended up on the bubble. How can these shows struggle while “American Idol” continues to rollover the competition? Seriously, sometimes I want to go all “Celtic Pride” on Simon Cowell and kidnap him, just to put a chink in the AI juggernaut.

“Veronica Mars” (CW)
Word has it that the network is intrigued by a Season 4 trailer that takes place two years in the future and features Veronica at the FBI academy. Maybe I just have a crush on Kristin Bell (or is it Veronica?), but that idea sounds very promising.

“The Unit” (CBS)
Any regular viewers that missed the season finale of “The Unit” should stop reading immediately and go watch it. Seriously. If you’re still here, you know that the unit has disintegrated, Jonas is in the wind and Bob has joined the CIA. His first task? To track down Jonas! “The Unit” is set to return for another season despite somewhat mediocre ratings.

“Friday Night Lights” (NBC)
Clear eyes…full hearts…can’t lose! After a lot of consideration, NBC has decided to renew the high school football drama for a second season. For those that are interested in diving into the second-best new show of the season (next to “Heroes”), NBC is streaming all episodes online. Choosing my words wisely, I wish the final game hadn’t turned out the way it turned out, but hey, I’m just happy there’s a Season 2 to look forward to.

“Studio 60” (NBC)
It was a very bad sign that the show disappeared during May sweeps, but it will return on May 24th to finish it’s first season. A second season is a serious long shot. In my research, I stumbled across an interesting article by Rick Kushman where he discusses the different ways the networks try to manipulate viewers. There’s one bit about NBC’s Thursday night schedule that is pretty funny.

“Smallville” (CW)
Michael Rosenbaum (who plays Lex Luthor) said in an interview that next season (Season 7) will be his last, and probably the last for the show. Ratings have been pretty strong and there are still a lot of storylines to mine in the world of Superman, but there’s no doubt that, after seven seasons, the actors and creators want to move on to other projects. There’s also no doubt that in a year or two, when the steady paychecks dry up, some of them will wish they had kept the series going. Anyway, we’ve got one more season. Let’s hope it ends with Clark finally becoming Superman.

“Supernatural” (CW)
I couldn’t find much info on a potential Season 3 of “Supernatural,” but Kimiit, a lounge member on the CW message boards, says that we’ll find out about the show’s fate on May 17th, when the network unveils its fall lineup. Kimiit goes on to say, “…you should be able to put your minds at ease. With the contests, all the merchandise coming out and the fact that CW will be repeating the show on Thursdays and Sundays this summer – renewal is pretty much in the bag.” Hey, if it’s good enough for Kimiit, it’s good enough for me.

“Medium” (NBC)
Despite a cast that includes one of the worst actors on TV, NBC has renewed “Medium” for its fourth season. The show has been mostly good, if a bit spotty, but a late push (that included Joe’s workplace scare and a three-part serial killer finale) has put the series on safe ground.

“ER” (NBC)
After a brief flirtation with “Grey’s Anatomy,” (truthfully, the flirtation was with Katherine Heigl) I learned that I can only handle one medical drama in my life, so until “ER” goes off the air, shows like “House” and “Heartland” (and whatever the “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff is going to be called) just don’t have a chance. After starring in his own failed medical drama (“3 lbs”), Stanley Tucci joins the cast as the ER’s new Chief for Season 14. (That’s right, “ER” has been on for 14 years!)

So there you have it, a roundup of some of the shows on the bubble. Feel free to post your own updates.

External TV, Gossip, News, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

24, Hour 21: I call shenanigans

May 8, 2007 /

All right, let me see if I have this straight. Farmer Hoggett, the father of a Federal agent, sold suitcase nukes to a former Russian general, who in turn teamed up with an Islamic terrorist group that had the resources to execute a massive strike that would take down several highly populated U.S. cities. Those terrorists, before they even revealed that they had nuclear capabilities, demanded the delivery of Jack Bauer, currently imprisoned by the Chinese government, for the purpose of killing him as a vendetta for various crimes against the Islamic terrorist cause. Jack, luckily, is not killed, and assists CTU in recovering the remaining suitcase nukes. Enter the Chinese, who extort Jack into stealing the components of one of the nukes, using former squeeze Audrey Raines – assumed dead by the Western world – as bait. Jack complies, even though it means serious jail time if not the death penalty. The Chinese now have Russian nuclear technology, and for that they have to thank…Farmer Hoggett, who has apparently been working with them from the very beginning.

I call shenanigans.

This is an even bigger house of cards than the ending to “Saw III,” and that was the shakiest house of cards I’ve seen in my life. In order for this to work, Hoggett has to hope that Jack doesn’t get killed by the Muslims. He then has to hope that no one at CTU will consider holding him for questioning when his other son – who works for him, I might add – confesses to trying to kill Jack and orchestrating the hit on President Palmer the First. He then has to hope that no one will find it at all suspicious when said son dies while alone in a room with him, as he blames his son Jack for excessive use of force. After that, he actually has to hope that Jack can stop the bombs from being detonated so Jack is even in a position to deliver the technology to the Chinese at all.

I call shenanigans!

On the other side of the rock, Lisa Miller is forced to snuggle up to her lobbyist spy of a boyfriend in order to implicate him, and if Bishop didn’t read her non-verbal cues, then he is the worst spy in the history of bad spies. We’re talking Aykroyd/Chase “Spies Like Us” bad, decoy bad. He must want to have sex with her pretty badly, even though they just did it an hour ago and he was alarmed by her abrupt departure and equally abrupt return. Can they really convict Lisa of treason? She had no idea she was being played. That’s like pressing charges against people who have their identities stolen.

None of this makes sense. Or, if it does actually work in the vaguest way possible, it all leads to a big “Who cares?,” as my wife puts it. Can’t say I disagree. Jack Bauer, you have officially been put on notice.

24, External TV, TV, TV Action

Heroes, Week 21: “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”

May 7, 2007 /

Sylar and Nathan as sympathetic characters…? Come on.

In a series where every other scene requires a serious suspension of disbelief, that initial phone conversation between Sylar and Mohinder might’ve been the hardest bit to swallow in all of “Heroes,” especially given that, minutes later, his tone as he approached the hiding Hiro and Ando – after hearing Ando gulp! – was back to sounding like good ol’ homicidal Sylar. Fortunately, however, we weren’t provided with the opportunity to see if he’d really follow through on killing them. (By the way, when Hiro was trying to bail on following Sylar because he’s not supposed to kill Sylar for two days, I laughed out loud at Ando’s incredulous reply: “You want to hang around? Catch a show?”) And, yet, despite my skepticism at the beginning of the episode, that scene where Sylar put his mother in her very own snow globe actually started out feeling sweet before he eased into his usual psychotic behavior…though, to be fair, he looked like it was the use of his power which was actually driving him mad, given his sudden expression of regret when, upon seeing his mom’s blood, he abruptly stopped using his abilities. I’m not really surprised that Hiro wussed out when it came time to kill Sylar, but I still felt bad for him.

Fake Nikica: Why don’t you like Mr. Linderman?
Micah: I don’t know. He smells funny.

Wow. Seeing how much Linderman knows about the Heroes…well, Jessica and D.L., anyway, but you have to figure he knows everything about every single one of them…was really disconcerting, but it certainly confirmed definitively that he’s all but omniscient. (Dunno what to say about poor Micah, except that the paintings don’t exactly make his fate look promising.)

It was awful the way Thompson played on Mohinder’s memories of his sister to get him to help save Molly, but, damn, I sure hope he succeeds. If we actually have to endure Molly dying, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Like it wasn’t bad enough when Charlie bought it, I don’t think I can handle losing that cute little girl. She’s right up there with Dakota Fanning for cuteness; you just want to give her a hug. Or maybe that’s just because I’ve got a daughter. (Lately, I find myself feeling protective of every little girl in the world.) Still, it’s a fascinating power she has; I just hope she lives to use it more than a few more times!

A small but great moment: Nathan’s eyerolling when Claire asks, “You can fly?” Man, from week to week, you just never know who’s the biggest prick on the show…but Nathan’s leading the pack after playing the narc on Claire’s revelation about the possible bomb boy. And to team with Thompson? Ugh. Poor Claire. But, suddenly, Nathan’s having second thoughts and you think for one moment he might do the right thing…until, of all people, Mama Petrelli convinces him to play along with Linderman’s plan. Oh, excuse me, it’s not just Linderman’s plan; it’s her plan, too! Paging “The Manchurian Candidate”!(Side note: I know my good friend David saw Mama show up during the last five minutes and said, “YES! We’re finally going to find out what her power is!” DENIED!!!)

So now we’re left wondering which future is going to come to pass. Tick, tock, tick, tock…

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

Box Office Roundup: the world stops spinning on its axis for unworthy superhero threequel

May 7, 2007 /

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

We’re going off the grid for the summer box office fantasy season and doing it old school, with spreadsheets and all that funky math jazz! We’re not exactly excited about doing it that way, of course. But since Fantasy Moguls adopted that whole salary cap mentality, we just can’t get behind that. So we did a draft on our own. Where the movies are owned by only one person. No free love in this here joint, suckaz.

1) Spider-Man 3: $148 million
Wow. I mean, dude, like, wow. Do they even realize what kind of precedent they’re setting for the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie? They’re basically saying that the next “POTC” movie could be Krusty the Klown running down a beach with a sword while being chased by a cast of thousands, and it will surely break the box office record. Wow. I mean, like, wow, dude.
6) Lucky You: 2.5 million
We’re only mentioning this so Kevin Carr doesn’t feel quite so bad about picking a movie that opens the same weekend as “Spider-Man 3.” Don’t worry, Kevin, the negative word-of-mouth on “S-M 3” will surely bring “Lucky You” into the top five….or not.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, TV Action, TV Comedies

“Things are about to change”

May 6, 2007 /

Okay, four episodes to go and David Chase has set up just about every possible storyline imaginable. “Things are about to change,” we were promised tonight during the preview for next week’s episode, and it sure seems like we’re on the cusp of something big.

AJ’s not taking the breakup well. Okay, so that’s an understatement. It was interesting watching Tony try to talk to AJ about what he was going through, especially when his advice is to get a blowjob and go to a party at a strip club. I mean, how funny is it that Tony forced his 20-year-old kid to go to a strip club? “I’m not debating this with you.” Okay, fine, if you insist, Pop. Tony did throw some decent advice in there, though, something along the lines of the old “there are other fish in the sea” pep talk. AJ wasn’t biting, not until his new therapist put him on anti-depressants, anyway. Once that happened, well, life is apparently all good again. AJ’s going to parties, boozing it up with a bunch of frat buddies, and helping said frat buddies pour sulfuric acid on a welcher’s foot.

That’s the ironic thing in all of this: so AJ had his heart broken. Fine. It happens. Granted, if your kid starts talking about killing himself, you’ve got to get him some help. But while Tony’s heart was definitely in the right place, pushing him to hang out with some of his guys’ kids was clearly the wrong choice. He’s talked before about how he doesn’t want AJ to follow in his footsteps and get involved in the kinds of things he’s doing, but that’s exactly what seems to be happening. AJ got a kick out of the way that kid reacted when he learned that he was Tony Soprano Jr., and he was wired when he got home after the sulfuric acid incident. There’s clearly something there that he’s drawn to, and while Tony may think that depression is in his blood (“My rotten fucking genes have infected my kid’s soul,” he tells Melfi), it’s clear that emotional problems aren’t the only thing AJ’s inherited from dear old Dad.

And right about now it’s time to admit that I was wrong about Chris: he hasn’t already flipped. In my defense, that was just one of my theories, but it became clear tonight that he’s still siding with the good guys…whoops, make that the bad guys, I guess. Anyway, it also became clear tonight that it’s a very real possibility that Chris will flip at some point. Hell, he was kicking around that very idea tonight with his AA buddy J.T., right after he nearly spilled the beans about Adrianna and Ralph Cifaretto. J.T. knew he was in trouble when Chris started talking about that stuff, and he tried like hell to get him to shut up and leave. Chris finally agreed to go home, but not before shooting J.T. in the head. Damn, didn’t see that one coming. I kept expecting something to happen, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting that. Chris grabbed the doorknob with his hand in his sleeve when he left, but it won’t take too much digging for the feds to figure out who may have been involved with this, considering everyone knows J.T. wrote the screenplay for Chris’ movie. Is this going to be the heat that’ll turn Chris against Tony? At this point, it’s clear it wouldn’t take much pushing to get Chris to turn, considering how much bad blood there is these days between him and Tony.

Sorry to jump backwards (that’s what happens when you write without thinking), but is this tension between Chris and Paulie finally going to come to a head? Those two have been at each other’s throats for years, and I thought for sure there was going to be some fireworks tonight. We came close, but aside from Chris tossing Paulie’s nephew out of a window for robbing his father-in-law and Paulie then turfing the shit out of Chris’ front yard (which was hilarious, by the way – does anybody have a funnier pissed-off face than Paulie Walnuts?), it all blew over. Chris decides to have a drink with Paulie in a show of good faith, and that’s when the trouble began. Paulie started busting his balls again, made some pretty low cracks about his daughter, and Chris, who already felt disconnected from the group because he doesn’t hang out and drink with them anymore, didn’t appreciate everyone laughing at him so he bailed. But, damn – I was expecting more there. In fact, I kept waiting for Chris to smash his rock glass into Paulie’s face. Instead he killed his AA buddy.

Finally, how uncomfortable do you think Tony was giving agent Harris that information? Sure, it had nothing to do with him and he was doing it mainly because he hoped cooperating with them on the terrorism stuff would pay off down the road should he ever be convicted of any crime…but still. It’s the feds, T! They’re the bad guys. Okay, the good guys, whatever.

External Entertainment, External TV, The Sopranos, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

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