Category: TV Action (Page 69 of 145)

I have seen the first two episodes of Season 5 of “Lost,” and…

January 1, 2009 /

…I can’t say a whole lot about them. Sorry, but you know how it is with the press lockdown on these things: nobody at the network likes spoilers. I will, however, offer up five random tidbits from each episode to perhaps further your excitement ’til they air back to back on January 21st:

Episode 5.1:

* Willie Nelson’s “Shotgun Willie” is used as the background music to the opening sequence…and the fact that it’s on vinyl is, if not technically important in and of itself, something that indirectly ties into a point of comparison later in the episode.

* Time is very much the essence of the episode, a factor which lends itself to offering up several familiar faces that we haven’t seen in quite some time, but if you’re someone who gets a headache from the rules and regulations of time travel, prepare for a migraine the size of Montana. On the other side of the coin, however, this means that it’s finally Daniel Faraday’s time to shine!

* We get our first proper encounter with someone whose face has been well known to us for several seasons now.

* Sawyer spends virtually the entire episode with his shirt off. This has nothing to do with anything in the plot; I just figured it might give the ladies out there a little something extra to look forward to.

* And just as a helpful piece of kitchen advice, always put your knives point down in your dishwasher. I’m just sayin’. You never know when it could pay off for you.

Episode 5.2:

* One of the Oceanic Six has a mainland encounter with a long-dead islander…sort of.

* There is a moment which is almost certainly a winking tribute to “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

* The father of one of the characters makes a return appearance…and that character’s mother, too, for that matter.

* Fire = bad. Fire attached to projectiles = very, very bad.

* When you hear the line “good to see ya” uttered late in the episode, you will grin and possibly cheer.

Stay tuned, because I’ll be screening episode 5.3 when I’m out at the TCA Press Tour from Jan. 7 – 16, and I’m sure I’ll be able offer a few more tidbits from that installment as well.

External Entertainment, External TV, Lost, News, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Prison Break 4.16: “The Sunshine State”

December 23, 2008 /

The show (ponderously) moved to Florida for its “fall finale.” This was apparently meant to geographically separate Sara and Michael from the gang, which now consists of Lincoln, Gretchen, T-Bag, Don and a late-arriving Mahone. I’m not clear about what “deals” Don, Gretchen and T-Bag made with the General, but they seem to be committed to the quest wholeheartedly (when they should probably be on the run).

Gretchen and Lincoln had an interesting moment at the hotel when she offered herself up to him, and it would seem rather pointless if she is truly now on her way to jail. Maybe the writers were just trying to amp up the sexual tension, or maybe they’re setting something else up for later on. I presume Lincoln is still committed to Sofia, who I believe is still with L.J. in Panama.

“Is that the secret to unlimited renewable energy in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

Unsurprisingly, the new buyer for Scylla is Michael and Lincoln’s mother, but it’s not clear why she had to buy the device if she has so much power within the Company. The psychiatrist could have been yanking Michael’s chain to get him on board, but even if he had agreed to work with her within the Company, the jig would have eventually been up once he learned that she didn’t work there.

Don had a couple of great lines in this episode. First, he introduced Mahone as “Bruce Liberachi,” and then he went on this spiel once he realized that Gretchen had betrayed the group:

“You whore. You’re a whore. Your mother was a whore and her mother was a whore. And your father use to turn tricks at a gas station ‘cause he was a whore too.”

This, coming from a guy who has betrayed every single character on the show at least once.

From the tag, it looks like Michael and Lincoln are going to be pitted against each other in the search for Scylla. Seeing that Linc agreed to work for the Company in order to get Michael the necessary medical care, I’m not sure why he doesn’t join forces with his brother now that he’s safe with Sara. If his reasoning is that he “just wants his life back,” that’ll be pretty lame. If he wants his life back he should just join L.J. and Sofia in Panama. Why does he have to mess with Michael’s seemingly impossible and endless quest to take down the Company?

The tag also said that there are only six episodes left, which (somewhat) contradicts the news that the show was going to have its filming schedule extended by two episodes. There has been no additional news since mid-November that would give us any clues about the show’s future. I, for one, agree with the General in that the whole cat and mouse has been “exhausting.” It’s well past the time to wrap this thing up.

External Entertainment, External TV, Prison Break, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

An A to Z of Last-Minute Gifts for the TV Geek in Your Life

December 21, 2008 /

Got a TV geek on your Christmas list but don’t know what to get them because you’re petrified that they might already have all the obvious picks? As someone who falls into that demographic (and therefore has to make a very explicit list for my family every year), I understand where you’re coming from, so please allow me to do my part to help but you and the poor bastard you’re waiting ’til the last second to shop for. Sure, the list is a little all-over-the-place, but all of these items have landed in stores since last Christmas, and…hey, at least it’s in alphabetical order!

1. Adam 12: Season Two – Rescued from Universal’s indifference by the good folks at Shout! Factory, it holds up about as well as any show produced by Jack Webb (which is to say that the acting is more than a little stilted), but it’s been tricked out with commentaries from actual Los Angeles police officers, which make for entertaining and interesting listening.

2. Beauty and the Beast: The Complete Series – Ron Perlman may be best known these days for his work in FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” and the “Hellboy” franchise, just as Linda Hamilton is probably destined to be remembered as the definitive Sarah Connor, but once upon a time, they were the stars of a rather unlikely romance on CBS. This complete-series set offers little new for those who’ve already purchased the individual season sets except an interactive trivia game, some “newly reconstructed love letters” from Vincent which don’t sound like they’re being read by Perlman, and a nice looking box, but it’s a strange, fanciful, and romantic show that your mom, wife, sister, or…oh, hell, even you might like it.

3. Comedy Central’s TV Funhouse – Given that it takes the style of a kids show from the early ’70s and blends it with dark, surreal, and sometimes downright filthy humor, it’s only halfway surprising that this series didn’t find a following, but it will undoubtedly come to be remembered as one of the great lost comedy classics of the decade. Robert Smigel obsessives will notice that a few things are missing from the show’s original airing, but there’s still plenty here to make you laugh and groan for hours.

4. Drak Pak: The Complete Series – Sometimes, you include an item for personal reasons, but the idea of the kids of Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein’s Monster teaming up to form a crime-fighting team that battles against a guy who looks suspiciously like Vincent Price is one that had me watching every Saturday morning. Sadly, it only lasted a single season, and watching it now, I can kind of see why, but it’s still a fun flashback for those who remember the show from its original run.

Continue reading »

External Entertainment, External TV, Jericho, News, Reviews, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs, TV Sci-Fi

Prison Break 4.15: “Going Under”

December 16, 2008 /

All right, I just want to get this prediction out of the way: the woman on the phone – you know, the “other buyer” – she’s Lincoln and Michael’s mom. Has to be. That would be the only explanation for all the “other patient” talk the last couple of weeks and the introduction of the Tombstone II folder. As soon as I heard the woman’s voice on the phone, a light bulb blinked on.

Anyway, this was kind of a clunky episode as the series tries to reposition itself for a stretch run now that Scylla is complete. After the representative’s saucy (and completely inappropriate) “nothing more than a fancy box…(look at Gretchen)…speaking of…” comment, Don and Gretchen got a look at the data on the device and based on Michael and Sara’s later conversation, Scylla is more about renewable energy than anything else. Clearly, this would be a VERY profitable thing to get one’s hands on, so it will be interesting to see if Michael (or, in this case, Lincoln) can be the one to bring renewable energy to the world.

(In the interests of full disclosure: When I first saw Michael drawing boxes around B – AR – GA – IN, I thought they were states. Not “B” obviously, but Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana. I am a fool.)

“The salesman said that if I stare at this long enough, I’ll eventually see a unicorn.”

We had another classic “Prison Break” moment when the buyer’s representative pulled a gun on Gretchen and Don, and instead of just shooting them, he explained, “I’m sure you understand that no one can know where Scylla is going.” Why is this explanation necessary? Why does he care if the people he’s trying to kill understand why he’s trying to kill them? Isn’t enough for the American viewing public to accept the fact that there’s a lot at stake here and that buyers and sellers are going to try to double-cross each other when they have the chance? That moment was totally ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Mahone is once again on the run after his former partner (and love interest?) let him escape. I have no idea where this is going. Mahone could attempt to reunite with Lincoln and Michael or he could go visit his wife (though surely that would be the first place that the Feds would look). Strangely, Sucre also seems to have left the story, at least for now. Maybe the two are going to reunite in Mexico and get a jump start on that scuba shop everyone keeps talking about.

From what the General said to Lincoln, it sounds as if he has to work with Gretchen, Don and T-Bag in order to find Scylla. Once again, the show has doubled back upon itself and reshuffled the deck. My guess is that the next several episodes will follow this new group (with Michael and Sara joining them soon) as they try to hunt down the new buyer (a.k.a. the brothers’ mother). Whoopee!

External TV, Prison Break, TV Action, TV Dramas

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2.13 – In this world, we’ve got to find the time for the (death) of Riley

December 16, 2008 /

So this is how the second season of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” was supposed to end.

It’s the 13th episode, which is all they were originally supposed to make when the season began. And this is how they were going to end it…with three episodes that practically stood still. The episode fades to black with Sarah passing out from a gunshot wound, but then they follow it with scenes from the show’s second half (it relaunches in February), and we see that Sarah is very much alive. Exactly how she’s alive, I’m not sure, since she went into that warehouse by herself and didn’t tell anyone where she was. It reminds me of something someone said to my wife when she was trying to carry a bunch of luggage through the London tube station by herself: “You are either very brave, or very foolish.” Sarah’s tough, but this was just dumb.

We finally get Riley’s back story, and man, what a disappointment that was. She goes from feral street rat in the future, to undercover mark assigned to seduce John Connor, in what seems like a matter of weeks. I can see why Jesse would choose someone that doesn’t fight for the resistance (thus making it less likely any fellow Resistance members would recognize her), but surely there was someone more appropriate for the job, right? And would Riley really go from having doubts about the assignment to committing suicide in John’s bathroom? Really? We all knew that Riley was going to die sooner or later, but suicide? That’s just lazy. I would rather have seen Riley try to confess everything to John, only to have Jesse kill her before Riley could rat her out. It’s cliche, but that would have been much more tragic. As it is, John’s only take-away from this is, “Man, that Riley was a crazy bitch.” Methinks the Future John is now even more into Cameron than he was when Jesse and Riley traveled back in time in the first place.

“Hi, I’m a slightly unstable, combat-ready paranoid who sees these three dots everywhere. Oh, and I’m going to get you killed before all is said and done.”

Sarah, meanwhile, is hanging out with a cross-dressing Man Who Knows Too Much, in a blind pursuit of the three dots. She finishes her quest, of course, but not before getting both the cross-dresser and the hypno-therapist she recruits to open his mind killed in the process. Wouldn’t you have thought, after the first attempt on their lives at his/her storage facility, that Sarah would have realized that taking Abraham into the city was not a good idea? Nope. Instead, she brings him back for an “emergency” session with the clearly busy therapist. Who does that? “Excuse me, I need you to fix my car.” “Well, we’re very busy, so you’ll have to make an appointment.” “Nope. It’s an emergency.” “You heard the man, get these cars out of here and get to work on his problem.” Uh, sure.

Ellison and Cromartie/John Henry finally return, and while it has the makings of an interesting dynamic, I’ll stop short of saying that thie will actually lead to something interesting. This show has been nothing but missed opportunities, so there is no guarantee they will follow through on this one. Still, they did hint in the previews that John Henry eventually figures out that Catherine is a machine, which means that Ellison’s concern that John Henry will grow far too powerful to be controlled may will indeed come to fruition. Speaking of Catherine, she had the episode’s best line: “Cows are more powerful than humans, but I’d still rather be the farmer with the rifle.” Curious choice of phrasing, since you could argue that in her mind, we’re the cows, and she’s the farmer with the rifle. However, if the show doesn’t get its ass in gear in February, “Terminator” will be the cow, and Fox will be the farmer with the rifle.

Reports indicate that when Fox brings back “Terminator” in February, it will be moved to the Kevorkian death slot of Friday night. If that is indeed the case, this will likely serve as my last blog on the show. Thanks to everyone who read my rants (quickest way to hate a show: start blogging about it), and here’s hoping that the producers of the show finally get it right in the new year.

Actors, Actresses, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, TV, TV Action

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