Category: External TV (Page 390 of 419)

Rome: “Passover”

January 15, 2007 / John Paulsen

It’s been more than a year since we’ve had a new episode of “Rome” to watch, and I always find it interesting, especially with these shows on HBO, how our everyday lives roll on as the cast and crew work furiously to but together twelve or thirteen episodes to entertain us for three months before the process starts all over again for another season.

Tonight’s episode picks up moments after Caesar’s murder, and all hell’s breaking loose in the city. For the most part, the creators did a beautiful job of seamlessly rolling the first season into the second. But Atia (Polly Walker) looks quite different to me, so much so that I almost didn’t recognize her when she first hit the screen. It’s possible that they wanted her character to look like she’s aged five to ten years and gained ten to twenty pounds, but something tells me that was an issue the creators had to deal with when they started shooting for the second season.

This episode dealt with the aftermath of not only Caesar’s death, but Niobe’s as well. It’s not often that a show will kill off two of their main characters at the same time, but the parallel storylines make for compelling television.

First, the political implications of Caesar’s death had to be dealt with and it was clear right from the start that Octavian was stepping up his role in the political realm. He’s extremely savvy, so it’s no wonder why Caesar bequeathed his estate to the young man, effectively making Octavian his son. As his mother tres to get the family out of the city, he quickly formulates a plan, and with Mark Antony’s help (and his mother’s approval), he effectively seizes control of the city. Brutus made the mistake of trusting Antony against the advice of all of his advisors, including Servilia. When she put in her two cents, his line – “You too, mother?” – was priceless.

Meanwhile, Lucius is reeling from Niobe’s suicide, but it was clear that he was going to kill her anyway for having a child by another man while he was away at war. He made the mistake of cursing and banishing his children and almost immediately regrets it.

Titus and his slave girl have a nice moment in the woods when he had the best line of the show: “I know I didn’t get us started off on the right foot, killing your man, and I’m sorry for that.” He proposes to her and she agrees to be his wife, but it’s clear that she’s having a tough time understanding that she’s a free woman now. Anyway, once someone rides by yelling about Caesar’s death, Titus hilariously knocks the guy off his horse and uses it to head back to the city.

There, he finds Lucius in a serious tailspin, but helps his friend pull things together. Lucius is torn up about placing a curse his children and the two men discover that their old boss abducted them. After a bloody attack on the boss’ hideout, the man informs the duo that for Lucius’ past transgressions, he “f*cked them, killed them and threw them in the river.” And that was the end of that guy.

It may take a while for Lucius to recover from he day’s events, and he’s not unlike the city of Rome trying to recover from Caesar’s death. Brutus has been sent to the country, so it looks like Antony, Octavian and Atia will control the city for the time being. Octavian and Titus also had words during the episode and it’s clear that kid trusts the big man. Over the season, Octavian is going to develop into more of a leader and it will be interesting to see what role Titus (and Lucius, for that matter) play in the future of the empire.

All in all, it was a great premiere and I can’t wait to see more.

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Caesar HBO Rome blog Rome Passover

“24,” Hours 1 & 2: That sound you heard was the cast of “Heroes” breathing a sigh of relief

January 14, 2007 / David Medsker

I love “24,” I really do.

But this was the weakest opening they’ve ever done.

Perhaps that’s a tad unfair. To be honest, I don’t really remember any season premiere other than Season One (Death from Above) and Season Five (The CTU Massacre). But this one, despite an abundance of torture (that knife through the kneecap was grueling to watch), not much happened. Well, a lot happened, but very little of it made sense.

President Wayne Palmer (any chance they’ll explain how a former Chief of Staff ascended to the White House in 20 months?) springs Jack Bauer from the clutches of the Chinese in order to use him as collateral in exchange for the whereabouts of the man behind the numerous bombings taking place all over the country. What does this say about the effectiveness of the US government? For things to get this bad, they would have to be either incompetent or corrupt on a scale that this country has never known, which makes the premise a tad hard to swallow. Picture the government offering to allow terrorists to kill you because they have no other scenarios to stop the attacks. The former Eli Cash would call this a You Must Suspend Disbelief moment, and he wouldn’t be wrong.

Boy, have things changed at CTU. Director of Homeland Security Karen Hayes and CTU director Bill Buchanan are married, which means one of them will not live to see the credits to the season finale. Milo is back, and Morris O’Brien, Chloe’s ex-husband, is his insubordinate subordinate. There’s a girl named Nadia above Chloe and below Buchanan. Her most valuable asset at this point seems to be the ability to speak Arabic. But the most entertaining casting move so far is Peter MacNicol (who will be referred to from this point on as The Biscuit) as President Palmer’s chicken hawk advisor Thomas Lennox, a guy who seems hell-bent on using the Constitution as toilet paper. He should be a fun foil, but I have to say that he doesn’t make me miss Agent Aaron “Old Yeller” Pierce or Mike Novick any less.

The most egregious, preposterous character addition, on the other hand, has to be the introduction of Regina King as Sandra Palmer, the sister to Wayne and David Palmer that, mysteriously, had never existed before today. Would it have been so hard to make her a half-sister or an ex-wife? Perhaps a hooker with a heart of gold? Anything but a blood relative to David Palmer. That’s insulting to both his memory and ours.

Oh, and for their big twist? The man giving up the goods on the terrorist is the terrorist, and he’s trying to have his reformed brother in arms dispatched by the very people reformed terrorist is trying to work with. Clever, no? No. It’s easy, that’s what it is. And the reaction by Palmer, Buchanan, Hayes and everyone else when Jack tried to explain to them they were about to take out the wrong man was maddening. This guy has saved the country five times already. I don’t care if he had bamboo shoots stuffed underneath his fingernails for the last 20 months: dude knows what he’s doing. He just bit a guy to death, okay? Listen to him. Oh, and was it just me, or was everyone else screaming, “Hotwire the car and drive, you moron!” after Jack escaped from Fayed’s lair?

Lastly, there’s the former stoner horn dog Kumar Taj as…wait for it…a terrorist. Ho, ho, and indeed, ho, as Will Harris once said. He did have one good line when he pointed the gun at the neighbor kid across the street. “Friend? You can’t even pronounce my name right.” Still, if he’s a terrorist, then so is Jeff Spicoli, or Brad Pitt’s character Floyd from “True Romance.” Puh, lease.

Tomorrow night promises to “change everything.” That’d be a nice change of pace, if you ask me. Not a good start, people. Time to start killing good guys.

24, Actors, Actresses, External TV, TV, TV Action

The Office: “Traveling Salesmen”

January 12, 2007 / John Paulsen

A couple of the season’s biggest plot points struck this week as Dwight gallantly resigned under a shroud of mystery and Karen finally found out about Jim’s (former?) crush on Pam.

Andy is hell bent on being Michael’s right-hand man – in fact, I think he’d actually like to be his right hand – and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to move up the office ladder. He effectively pushed Dwight out of the office, by playing on Michael’s suspicions about Dwight’s loyalty. But all he’s done is put himself squarely in Angela’s crosshairs. This could get ugly.

It was interesting to see the sales force actually go out and make sales calls. Despite their many differences, Dwight and Jim make a pretty good team, even though Dwight has to spend a few minutes in the parking lot, psyching himself up to Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart.” Meanwhile, Phyllis took Karen to the beauty salon before hitting up one of her customers who apparently loves women who wear a lot of make up. Karen’s makeover was hilarious.

Andy and Michael didn’t jive in the sales call. If nothing else, Michael is an excellent salesman, which is why, despite his shortcomings, he’s survived so long at Dunder-Mifflin. It’s clear that Andy is not so good at selling paper, which may be his downfall, if Angela doesn’t get to him first.

He did have a great line when they were packing up Michael’s car: “Sebring by Chrysler. Heck of a motor carriage.”

Jim and Karen talked about Pam over coffee, and it seems like Karen did move to Scranton to be near Jim. He calmed her down, but I wonder how honest he’s being with her (and himself). I stand by my prediction that the two will stay together until Pam gets back together with Roy.

What’s going to happen to Dwight? There’s no way that he’s off the show, but it would interesting to see him flounder in unemployment for a few weeks before Angela throws herself under the bus to get him rehired. His resignation speech was great, but I really liked the line he said in private: “One of my goals was to die right here in my desk chair. And today, that dream was shattered.”

Don’t worry, Dwight. You’ll be back.

External TV, The Office, TV, TV Comedies

“24” Season Six Preview

January 11, 2007 / David Medsker

The producers of “24” are always crazy sneaky when it comes to doling out the goods before the highly anticipated season premiere. I’ve seen the ads on Fox for the last few weeks – though I must admit that I have not gone far and wide looking for spoilers, since I, like the rest of you, want to be surprised – and here is what I’ve learned about the upcoming season:

– The U.S. government, somehow, managed to secure the release of Jack Bauer from the torture-happy Chinese.
Did the Chinese government get bored with him after he screamed the exact same way every time they ripped off one of his fingernails? The Chinese were very clear in Season Four that they wanted Bauer’s head on a silver platter. For them to give him up must have required a deal of Faustian proportions.

– Wayne Palmer is now President of the United States.
In the 18 months of “24” time since the end of Season Five, Wayne Palmer has, inexplicably, ascended to the White House despite holding an office no higher than that of Chief of Staff for his now-deceased brother, President David Palmer. Of course, this turn of events makes me positively giddy, because it puts my Season Five conspiracy theory back into play.

– Jack is being asked by the government to sacrifice himself.
You realize that that line by itself is totally useless and misleading. “Sacrificing” Jack Bauer could mean literally anything (which is to say, nothing), and besides, show me the government that gives up the location of its #1 to their opponent’s Spy. Oh, right, they changed the rankings in Stratego, didn’t they? Now the #10 is the most powerful one on the board. Oh, well, you get my drift.

– CTU finally learns of the existence of Dr. Romano.
There is a scene where the onetime Dr. Romano (his character’s name is Graham, but he’ll always be Dr. Romano to us) tells Jack, “You’re hurting me.” Jack’s response sums up all the frustration we felt about this shadow group and how it was able to manipulate the President so easily: “Trust me, I’m not.” Translation: welcome to the House of Pain, sucka.

– President Buck Buck Brawwwwwwk and the First Lady of Crazy will be back for an episode.
Sweet. I’m always curious to see what happens to the fallen “heroes” of seasons past. Maybe this one will end in a murder/suicide. That’d be cool.

– Everyone and his brother is guest-starring on “24” this season.
James Cromwell, Kal Penn, Rick Schroeder, Peter MacNicol, Powers Poothe, the former Mr. Hilary Swank (Chad Lowe), and Eddie freaking Izzard are ALL in on the action this season. While I feel that nearly all of those are fantastic casting decisions – mainly because it doesn’t leave any room for Elisha Cuthbert to get caught in another bear trap – this will surely cut into the screen time of Agent Curtis, Bill Buchanan, official girlfriend of Bullz-Eye Chloe O’Brien and her hilarious ex-husband Morris.

– Official Bullz-Eye girlfriend Chloe O’Brien is now a brunette.
I think I speak on behalf of the entire staff when I say that we just can’t get behind that. Chloe isn’t Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, or that Tonks character in the “Harry Potter” series. She’s Chloe, complicated, snarky and wonderful. Most importantly, she’s the polar opposite of a stereotypical blonde, which is why we loved her so much. Everyone expects the brunette to be smart and sassy. With her dye job, Chloe’s given up her ace in the hole. Hopefully, though, she still has her taser.

Sunday can’t come soon enough. Are you ready? I know I am.

24, External TV, TV, TV Action

The Office: “Back from Vacation”

January 5, 2007 / John Paulsen

First off, I have to thank Deb for linking to the promo on last episode’s blog that confirmed that Jan was the one who accompanied Michael to Jamaica. I didn’t watch the promo, but her post led me to believe that there was a chance that it actually wasn’t Jan, allowing me to be (sort of) surprised when it turned out that Michael did indeed go to Jamaica with his boss.

Andy (Ed Helms) has been a terrific addition to the program and it’s nice to see the show utilizing his talents. In the opening sequence, his delivery of the line, “I am now chopping off Phyllis’ head with a chainsaw,” was hilarious. I always enjoyed watching Helms’ work on “The Daily Show,” and he’s made a deft transition to my favorite sitcom.

Two other actors have stolen more than a few scenes over the first half of the season. The bit in the warehouse where Michael visited Darryl (Craig Robinson) trying to track down the email photo was absolutely priceless. Robinson’s timing was perfect as he sat there munching on a buffalo wing, saying, “I’m really busy here, Michael.” Meanwhile, Toby (Paul Lieberstein) and Michael’s discussion about the picture in Michael’s office was perfectly uncomfortable. It’s obvious that Michael dislikes Toby mainly because Toby doesn’t work for him (and that he’s politically correct, something that Michael is most definitely not). Lieberstein’s portrayal of the wounded Toby is always subtle.

Anyway, Jan was Michael’s mystery guest, but really, who else could it have been? I loved Jim’s reaction when he was discussing the revelation with Pam – “What happened there…kidnapping?” Speaking of Pam, she finally broke down and cried over Jim’s relationship with Karen. I still expect that she’ll get back together with Roy before Jim parts ways with Karen, allowing the “will they?/won’t they?” theme to go on for a while longer. But back to the crying scene; I nearly shed a tear myself when Dwight took off his jacket and wrapped it around his waist, later saying, “So you’re PMS’ing pretty bad, huh?”

It was a nice surprise when Jan visited Michael, apparently oblivious to his idiocy surrounding the photo. She’ll eventually find out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll be even more upset that he didn’t tell her about it the night of the inventory luau. But you really can’t blame Mr. Scott. He’s got to take the lovin’ when he can get it.

(Note: For fans of the original UK series, Ricky Gervais’ new show “Extras” enters its second season on January 14th on HBO.)