Category: External TV (Page 232 of 419)

Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part One

December 30, 2008 /

At the conclusion of Season Four, plastic surgeons Drs. McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Troy (Julian McMahon) had packed up their scalpels and headed for sunny Beverly Hills – after all, what better place for two amoral surgeons than Hollywood – so Season Five is something of a new start for the offices of McNamara/Troy. At season’s start, however, business isn’t so hot, so they agree to join a crappy TV series called “Hearts ‘N Scalpels” as technical advisors who will also briefly appear onscreen during the surgery sequences. At first, Christian is certain that this is his ticket to fame, while Sean is reluctant about the entire affair, but the tables quickly turn when the camera favors Sean, and Christian sulks away to soothe his bruised ego in all manner of seedy ways. Sean becomes the toast of the town, begins dating the show’s leading lady, Kate (Paula Marshall), and becomes party buds with the vacuous leading man, Aidan (Bradley Cooper). Then Sean’s ex Julia (Joely Richardson) shows up with kids Annie and Connor in tow, and mama’s got a new brand new bag: a girlfriend, Olivia, played by none other than Portia de Rossi! Olivia’s got a kid, too: Eden (Annalynne McCord, “90210”), a twisted little teen who sets her sights on destroying everything in her path. But an even greater evil lurks in the shadows, waiting to pounce, and perhaps there are worse things waiting in Hollywood than an attention-starved teenager.

Oddly, when this batch of episodes played on FX, I really didn’t care for them and saw a show struggling for air. If you felt at all the same, I urge you to give this set a spin, because I saw the season in a whole new light this time around and actually found myself having a lot of fun with the series, something I hadn’t really done in a couple years. As far as the whole “Season Five, Part One” thing goes, the series is gearing up another round of eight episodes which technically will finish up Season Five, although creator Ryan Murphy has said that the labeling is more of an internal thing, and that the new episodes probably won’t have much to do with what’s on this set. In other words, just think of this as Season Five and be done with it.

Click to buy “Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part One”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

Aqua Teen Hunger Force 6

December 24, 2008 /

I don’t know what it is about “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” that causes me to be forever surprised at how funny it is, but I think perhaps it’s because the concept is so downright surreal. Nonetheless, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force 6” (which actually contains the whole of Season 5 of the series) contains just as many laughs as the previous collections. The first few episodes, however, feature little or no appearances from Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad, due to their being cocooned in the desert by their vampire-esque landlord Marcula; ever the caring neighbor, Carl immediately tries to rent out their place to a bunch of robots, but his greatest spotlight comes in the third episode, “Sirens,” when he meets another set of new neighbors, voiced by Kelly Hogan, Neko Case, and John Kruk. (Kruk plays himself; the other two do not.) Other guest voices during the season include David Cross, T-Pain, Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Scott Adsit (“30 Rock”), Jon Benjamin (a.k.a. Coach McGuirk on “Home Movies”), and Kristen Schaal (“Flight of the Conchords”).

There are four previously-unaired episodes, the best of which is “Shake Like Me,” where Master Shake is bitten by a radioactive black man and becomes black himself. Scientifically implausible, you say? Surely no more so than an anthropomorphic Happy Meal. Of the special features, sports fans will particularly enjoy the “Carl’s Pissed” shorts, where the hairy undershirt-wearing gentleman moans and groans about various events in the world of sports, but there are also other oddities that fans of the show’s bizarre comedic sensibilities will enjoy. Those who do not belong to the Adult Swim cult, however, will almost certainly not…and that goes not just for the bonus material but also for “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” as a whole.

Click to buy “Aqua Teen Hunger Force 6”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, test, TV, TV Comedies, TV DVD Quicktakes, TV DVDs

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

Kids Today: “Drake & Josh: Best of Seasons 1 – 2”

December 22, 2008 /

I admit it: I’m a Drake Bell fan. It doesn’t have anything to do with his Nickelodeon sitcom, though; it’s all because of his music career. Have you heard his stuff? The guy’s so much of a Jellyfish fan that he covers “Joining a Fan Club” in concert…and does it pretty damned well, too. That’s why I requested this set to review back in August…and, yet, when it arrived, I was unable to bring myself to put it in the DVD player. When it came right down to it, I found myself asking a question that, to be fair, I probably should’ve asked before making the DVD request: is appreciating a guy’s musical output really enough of a reason to endure watching a sitcom aimed at an audience that’s about 20 years younger than I am? The answer: not really. After seeing Bell’s co-star, Josh Peck, appear in the Michael Rapaport flick, “Special,” however, I decided that the time had come to get off my old arse and get it over with.

As it happened, watching “Drake & Josh: Best of Seasons 1 – 2” wasn’t nearly as excruciating an experience as I’d feared it would be, which was certainly a nice surprise, but the most surprising thing about the experience was the fact that Peck’s photo on the cover of the DVD bears absolutely no resemblance to the actor as he appeared in the first few seasons of the series. He spent the third and fourth seasons of the show divesting himself of a fair amount of weight, as it turns out, but I guess the folks responsible for packaging this best-of set decided that offering an accurate presentation of Peck’s weight during Seasons 1 and 2 wouldn’t do as well to inspire the show’s predominant audience – teen-aged girls – to buy the set. (To be fair, they did manage to find room for a cast photo from the era on the back cover.)

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV, TV Comedies, TV DVDs

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.

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