Haaaaaaave you seen the new DirecTV ad that features Craig T. Nelson reprising his role as Steve Freeling in “Poltergeist”?
I caught it last night, and…well, is it just me, or did it feel really creepy and exploitative to see the late Heather O’Rourke?
I don’t think it was intended to feel that way (nor, apparently, does O’Rourke’s mother), but at the end of the ad, when Nelson says, “That’s going to come back to haunt me,” all I could think was, “Uh, yeah, and so is Heather…”
If you’re someone who’s prone to have his car radio turned to NPR as often as not, then the Tappet Brothers are likely well known to you. Tom and Ray Magliozzi started their radio show, “Car Talk,” way back in 1977, but they’ve been a part of the National Public Radio family since ’87, making their voices and their often-awful jokes instantly recognizable to NPR listeners. After 20 years on the air, someone at PBS apparently decided that they were ready to make the transition to TV…in animated form, at least. “As the Wrench Turns” takes the guys’ radio show and makes it the center of the series, first giving them a producer named Beth Totenbag, then introducing us to the guys who work at the brothers’ garage: Fidel, Crusty, and Sal. (Actually, Sal’s a woman, but you get the impression that she could take on anyone else on the show and come out victorious.) While it might’ve been fun to see Click and Clack taking on car problems in cartoon form, with the solutions animated on the screen for educational purposes, what we get instead is light political commentary and mainstream sitcom shenanigans. There are moments when you imagine what creators Howard Grossman and Doug Berman were going for, but mostly you’re reminded that the Tappet Brothers are at their best when they’re solved car problems…and while they’re nice guys, their humor has always been more groan-worthy than legitimately funny. Unfortunately, that feeling translates to much of their animated series.
Okay, so Linderman isn’t real.
After this week’s twist that Daphne could also see him, I really thought for sure that maybe he wasn’t just some twisted creation of Nathan’s psyche, but now we know that he’s actually nothing more than the work of one of Papa Petrelli’s minions. That’s right: we finally got the big reveal of Robert Forster this week, which I’ll get to in more detail in a bit. First, let’s talk about some of the other goings-on from this episode.
Sorry, but Moninder has reached the point of ridiculousness now. I was accepting the similarities to “The Fly,” but…really? He’s taking down people in the park, dragging their bodies home in a manner so careless that he’s literally leaving a trail of blood behind him, and then he’s…cocooning them? Give me a break. The only possible up side to the storyline at this point is that we may soon see the last of Maya, but somehow I suspect that we couldn’t possibly be that lucky.
Can you believe that “Entourage” is already halfway through the new season? It sure doesn’t seem like it, but that’s probably because despite hinting at where the story could be headed, the show hasn’t made very much progress in actually getting there. Following on the heels of what many considered one of the worst episodes to date, tonight’s show wasn’t that much better. I’m not exactly sure why anyone thought it was a good idea to bring back Dom – a character that a lot of fans complained about during his mini-arc in season three – but his return served no purpose other than to tie up Vince and Eric for an entire episode while they waited to hear back from Ari about the fate of “Smoke Jumpers.”
The subplot was supposed to show that Dom had finally matured as an adult, but honestly, does anyone even give a damn? His character was on the show for only a few episodes, and during that entire time, he was nothing but a nuisance to the whole gang. Why does the writing staff feel the need to redeem the guy, and better yet, why should the audience care? It’s bad enough that the show’s main characters are struggling for decent story arcs, but then they go and waste time developing a minor character that we’ll probably (hopefully) never see again? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s the latest in a line of bonehead decisions that the “Entourage” team has made so far this year.
The episode may have been named for the redemption that Dom supposedly earned, but it was the other two subplots that were the real saviors. I’ve always given Drama and Turtle a lot of heat for being forced to play the comic relief week in and week out, but this time around, their storyline actually had some meat to it. It’s nice to see Turtle actually taking this whole job hunt seriously, and though his one-day trial as Drama’s assistant didn’t quite work out, you can’t blame the guy for not trying. Were Drama not such a diva (seriously, where does he get off demanding such an overcomplicated breakfast?), I really think Turtle would have done a good job. After all, it’s what he’s been doing for years as part of Vince’s entourage, so it’s not like it’s something he isn’t already accustomed to. If I were him, I probably would have quit as well, but not before I got the number of that female assistant he chatted with earlier in the episode.
The real story of the night, however, was Ari’s golf outing with Alan Gray. I have to be completely honest, I didn’t think Ari would actually lose the bet (even with Phil Mickelson by Alan’s side), but when he was given a second chance to win Vince a spot in “Smoke Jumpers,” I thought to myself, “Oh, okay, he’s going to sink this putt.” Nope, Ari misses both times, and when Alan gets worked up over Ari’s ballsy decision to bring up Vince’s name even when he specifically asked that he didn’t, Alan has a heart attack and dies. Only Drama is willing to point out that Alan’s death may be a good thing for Vince (since it means he can make movies for WB again), but that doesn’t mean everyone else wasn’t thinking it. If Alan Gray truly was the only thing standing in Vince’s way, then he shouldn’t have any problem getting “Smoke Jumpers,” and he might even have a shot at working on that “Ramones” biopic as well. Check it out, I just wrote season six.
If there was ever a video game that could be so effortlessly adapted into an animated series, it’s the Japanese RPG “Blue Dragon.” Not only were the characters designed by “Dragon Ball Z” creator Akira Toriyama, but the setup feels a lot like two other popular shows (“Pokémon” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!”) that constantly thrust its characters into battles that aren’t actually fought by them, but rather their magical counterparts. In the case of “Blue Dragon,” these brawlers are known as Shadows – powerful beings that only a select group of people possess. When ten-year-old Shu discovers that he contains such an ability and unleashes it for the first time, he’s unable to control the Blue Dragon Shadow from nearly destroying his own village. With the help of Zola and her apprentice Jiro, Shu begins his training to learn how to control the power hidden within. When the group is attacked by the evil Nene’s right-hand man Logi, however, Shu’s training is thrust into overdrive as he must learn to use his power in order to save his friends. Though the series is a bit too childish for the average anime fan, “Blue Dragon” is a great distraction for the Saturday morning cartoon set. It features crisp animation, some colorful characters, and the same limitless possibilities that made “Pokémon” an international sensation. And they said video games were bad for you.
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