Category: TV Action (Page 86 of 145)

“Reaper” renewed for second season

May 13, 2008 / John Paulsen

“Reaper” fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The CW is bringing the show back for another season.

“Reaper” will return for 13 episodes midseason and will likely be paired with “Supernatural” on Thursday nights after “Smallville” concludes its run.
The network made the decision Monday, going down to the wire on whether to pick up the series before the CW’s “upfront” presentation to advertisers the next day.
“Reaper,” which stars Bret Harrison as a young man who’s a bounty hunter for the devil, has a devoted fanbase but has struggled in terms of ratings. Most recently the show averaged about a 1.0 rating among adults 18 to 49. The show initially impressed critics with its strong pilot directed by Kevin Smith (“Clerks”), then seemed to stumble creatively. Recent episodes, however, have fans saying the show is back on track with a more serialized storyline and sharper wit.

The article is dead on. After a quick start, the show floundered a bit midseason and fell into a “freak of the week” routine. That, combined with the constant tease of Sam and Andi’s relationship (as well as Sam’s decision to keep Andi in the dark about his second job), made some of those midseason episodes predictable and a bit frustrating. But over the course of the last six or eight episodes, the writers have changed the landscape of the show and introduced a serialized storyline to keep things moving from week-to-week.

The nice thing about being on one of the smaller networks (like CW, USA, FX, etc.) is that those networks aren’t going for a home run in ratings. They’re happy with a single here and a single there, so good writing will generally get you another season to build your audience. (R.I.P. “Journeyman”) With veteran shows like “Smallville” and “Supernatural,” along with newcomers “Gossip Girl” and “Reaper,” the CW keeps hitting singles.

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Stargate: Infinity – The Complete Series

May 13, 2008 / Will Harris

This short-lived animated spin-off from the “Stargate” franchise has received the kind of abuse from sci-fi fans generally reserved for Rick Berman’s work on “Star Trek,” but as they scream about abuse of continuity and how things have been dumbed down from the original source material, they’re forgetting something: it’s a freaking cartoon. Taking place 30 years after the original film, “Stargate: Infinity” focuses on Major Gus Bonner, a longtime member of the Stargate team who, as the series opens, is on trial as a result of a mission which led to the death of several members of his team. (Wow, the acknowledgement of death in a children’s cartoon? Nice!) In a quick set-up, however, we’re witness to Bonner being framed by an alien infiltrator disguised as a Stargate scientist, which leads to Bonner taking a trio of cadets – R.J, Seattle, and Samantha – and an alien technical expert named Teal’c through the Stargate. Although they aren’t readily able to return to Earth, they’re able to visit various other planets, so Bonner bounces the team to various places he’s already visited, helping to educate the young cadets until they can get home. The animation isn’t great, and the scripts inevitably have heavy-handed lessons shoehorned in, but the characters are interesting and, despite the complaints from the “Stargate” obsessives, “Infinity” is actually pretty enjoyable as kids’ sci-fi cartoons go. A word of warning: the series ended with no resolution to the team’s space-lost situation. Hey, maybe they’ll pop up on “Stargate: Atlantis”! (Yeah, let’s place bets on that, shall we?)

Click to buy “Stargate: Infinity – The Complete Series”

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Battlestar Galactica: “Faith”

May 10, 2008 / John Paulsen

Maybe they should rename this show “Demetrius,” because things are a hell of a lot more interesting on that ship than they are on good ol’ Galactica. Let’s jump to the end and discuss what the hybrid said (and correct me if I’m wrong):

The dying leader will know the truth of the opera house. The missing three will give you the five, who have come from the home of the thirteenth. You are the harbinger of death, Cara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end.

I was all ready to theorize about this on my own, but Cara and Co. were kind enough to spell it out for us. Apparently, the final five Cylons – Tigh, Sam, Tyrol, Tory and ? – came from the thirteenth colony (Earth) and can lead the fleet back. In order to identify the five, the Cylons need to reactivate D’Anna, as she’s the only one who knows their identities. Presumably, she’ll lead them to the five and the five will lead them to Earth.

Okay, that should be easy enough, right?

But then there’s the whole thing about Starbuck being the “harbinger of death” and that she will “lead them all to their end.” Honestly, that doesn’t sound very good.

So the prophecy kind of contradicts itself. Presumably, getting to Earth is a good thing, though the hybrid made it sound like they were on the road to death. It’s possible that she was talking about just the Cylons (or just the humans), and how Cara will lead them to their doom. There’s a lot to chew on there.

Back on Galactica, President Roslin gave more responsibility to Tory (great!) before going to see Doc Coddle for her cancer treatments. (By the way, I have a theory that Coddle is in fact the final Cylon because he is always there in sick bay when something major happens. Humans need to sleep sometime, right?) Anyway, while there, Roslin met a friend, Emily (played by Nana Visitor, who also played Major Kira on “Star Trek: DS9”). I think Emily’s role was to get the President thinking about death, the One God, and Baltar’s sermons. Apparently, Roslin could have joined her mother (played by Barbara Bush) but instead decided to go back to the land of the living. Good for her.

I’m not real clear on what the Eight did in the hybrid room. Was she trying to kill it? The Centurion must have thought so because he dumped some lead into her, so that might have been part of the Eights vs. Sixes mini-war that was going on behind the scenes. Or maybe the Centurion just took issue with the Eight trying to take the hybrid offline at all.

Things seem to be picking up, which is definitely a good thing. I just hope that the show Adama’s face when Cara Thrace jumps back to the fleet with a basestar in her back pocket. I also wonder if anything is going to come of Sam placing his hand onto the controls of the basestar. He didn’t touch it for long, but he did touch it.

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Battlestar Galactica: “The Road Less Traveled”

May 3, 2008 / John Paulsen

This week’s episode provided a little bit of movement in the two more compelling ongoing storylines: the fate of the Demetrius and the intra-Cylon war.

While I understand how Starbuck’s crew is getting eager to return to the fleet, what are the odds that they stumble upon Leoben at the site of an intra-Cylon battle? It’s obviously not a coincidence so either Starbuck (skinjob or not) is indeed on the path to Earth or she’s (intentionally or unintentionally) leading the ship into a trap. This is the first good clue the ship has discovered on its mission, and there simply isn’t time to go back and check in with the fleet before following the clue to see where it leads. However, that makes me wonder why Adama and Starbuck wouldn’t arrange for some backup meeting point and time if the circumstances prohibited the Demetrius from returning to the fleet at the 60-day mark.

Maybe the solution is for Starbuck another crewmember to take a raptor or two and follow the clue while the rest of the crew meets up with the fleet. One thing’s for certain – Starbuck needs to talk to the hybrid, and fast. Leoben wants to form an alliance between the humans and the remaining Sixes, Eights and Twos that would allow Cara to fulfill her destiny, which Leoben says is to lead the humans to Earth.

Back on Galactica, Baltar’s tiresome evangelizing intersected with the Tyrol’s semi-dreary mourning/coming-to-grips storyline. The former Chief decided to shave his head and jump rope in his cabin, which are (apparently) common reactions to discovering that you’re a Cylon and losing your wife to suicide. The whole Tyrol/Baltar holding hands thing seems extraneous right now, though I sure hope there is some purpose to it. Watching Baltar preach just makes me squirm, so I hope that he eventually gets what’s coming to him.

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Battlestar Galactica: “Escape Velocity”

April 26, 2008 / John Paulsen

I like this show as much as the next guy, but his episode was pretty tough to watch. It meandered from depressing storyline to depressing storyline with the speed of a drunk turtle. From the Chief’s badmouthing of his dead wife to Tigh’s fragile grip on reality to Baltar’s fairly lame speech about religion, it was pretty tedious throughout.

In fact, it felt a lot like last week’s episode, only without the shocking ending. Hopefully this is a slow buildup and not a trend for the season.

A couple of questions occurred to me:

1) Why doesn’t Roslin get another blood transfusion from Hera? That worked the first time, so it would be the first thing I’d try if I were in her situation.

2) What is the meaning of the Chief’s rant in the bar? Was he just trying to get himself reassigned so that he couldn’t do any more damage to the humans or was he seriously upset that he wasn’t able to be with the love of his life (presumably Boomer, who is also a Cylon)?

I was never really a fan of the Tigh/Ellen relationship, so seeing her pop back up isn’t a good thing. It was interesting to see Six plant a kiss on Tigh; I thought for a moment that she was going to try to escape (which would have been a whole lot more exciting) but maybe she’s drawn to Tigh because he’s a skinjob.

Anyway, we didn’t get any news from the Demetrius or the Cylon fleet, so this episode failed to move those storylines along. From the “next week” scenes, it looks like the Demetrius is heavily involved, so at least we have that to look forward to.