Ha ha, Billy. I jest. But seriously, folks…George Clooney and “companion” were involed in an accident that found a car crashing into Clooney’s motorcycle. The two are OK, though George has a broken rib and the doctors say it will take a long time to heal. The accident is under investigation, and it’s not sure whether or not the driver of the car was using his turn signal when the crash occurred. Just remember, kids: Click it or ticket! Well, unless you’re driving a motorcycle, that is.
Category: News (Page 265 of 401)
I might have some bad news for anyone who walked out of my Fall TV Preview thinking that “Bionic Woman” was going to be one of the best shows of the new season. Not that I’d blame you for thinking that, given that I offered the very dangerous claim that “it’s hard to imagine this not being the ‘Heroes’-like break-out series of the 2007 season.” But now that I’ve watched the recast and slightly-retooled pilot, I find that I’m not nearly as excited as I was when I watched the original pilot…and, ironically, the reason why doesn’t really involve the things that have been changed!
But, okay, even so, we should first focus on what has been changed. In the original pilot, the character of Jaime Sommers’ (Michelle Ryan) sister, Becca, was played by Mae Whitman (“State of Grace,” “Arrested Development”), but she’s since been replaced by Lucy Hale. More importantly, though, Becca used to be deaf; now, however, not only can she hear, but she’s also developed a talent as a computer hacker. Hmmm…maybe it’s just me, but this feels like one of those cases where someone in Research & Development said, “Yeah, here’s the thing: deaf characters don’t play real well in the sticks, but, hey, you know what does? Super-cute, super-smart teenage girls who have a natural aptitude that meshes well with their older sister’s newly-acquired bionics!” A deaf character would’ve been extremely interesting, but as it stands right now, this revised version of Becca feels less like a character than a plot device.
Yet, as noted, the change to Becca really isn’t what made me start to feel less confident about my initial assessment of “Bionic Woman.” No, basically, what happened was that as I watched the revised pilot, I began to realize that I’d been so taken by the awesomely kick-ass fight scene at the end of the show that I’d essentially forgiven it for anything and everything that had happened before it. This time around, however, I realized that even though it still has a dark look and feel to it that makes for good viewing, it’s riddled with way more cliche-ridden dialogue than I’d remembered. Also, Katee Sackhoff’s attempt to deliver the lines of her character – Sarah Corvus, the first bionic woman – like she’s a too-cool-for-school bitch actually plays more like she’s reading off cue cards. I did not, however, share the feelings of some of my fellow Bullz-Eye / Premium Hollywood contributors about Ryan’s performance; they didn’t think she had much in the way of charisma…and, somehow, I don’t think my suggestion that she reminded me of Ione Skye did do my contrary opinion any favors. But my take on Ryan’s take on the role, however, is that Jaime Sommers is a normal, ordinary woman who’s been placed in an extraordinary situation, and it’s gonna take some time for her to step up to the plate and become a larger-than-life heroine type…and, okay, admittedly, once she gets to that point, I hope she develops a more confident and threatening delivery than she has at the end of the pilot when she utters her farewell line to Jonas (Miguel Ferrer), the director of the bionics program. (Even *I* groaned at that.)
So, anyway, if you’re taking notes, here’s my new, revised opinion of the new, revised “Bionic Woman” pilot: I get the feeling that someone at the network might be pulling the strings to produce a show that’s focused more on thin characterizations and action at any cost than it is on the more interesting possibility of an intellectual technology-centered drama…and the fact that Glen Morgan has evacuated the project makes me even more concerned that that’s the case. Also, as the turmoil with CBS’s “Moonlight” has shown us, there’s nothing like the departure of a member of a show’s creative team to totally screw with its creative direction…and, unfortunately, that’s generally an ailment that all the nanite technology in the world can’t repair.
In closing, here’s a trailer for the show for your viewing pleasure:
Well, this morning’s FedEx delivery brought the screener for the 2nd season premiere of “30 Rock,” and the good news is…it’s still funny! Hooray!
Actually, that’s particularly good news, given that the series just won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series…not that an Emmy Award has ever been anything approaching an indicator of what the public likes. After all, the two highest rated episodes of “30 Rock” during its first season were its pilot and the episode where Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) goes on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Okay, so, basically, people were curious enough to tune in the first week, but then the only other thing that caught their fancy was the idea of seeing Conan O’Brien in prime time…and we attribute that to the fact that most prime-time viewers have never stayed up until 12:30 and finally wanted a chance to see what all the fuss was about with this lanky, red-headed young upstart. And given that these episodes rated #58 and #57 in their respective weeks means that even when people were curious, they weren’t that curious.
Clearly, however, someone at NBC saw this trend and said, “Hmmm…well, if they’re mildly curious about seeing Conan O’Brien in prime time, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that they’ll be super crazy curious about seeing Jerry Seinfeld return to an NBC sitcom for the first time since ‘Seinfeld’ ended!”
My God. It’s crazy…but it just might work!
Actually, the way they work Seinfeld into the show is one of those concepts that you can almost imagine a panicked television network executive…like, say, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin)…coming up with: they take all the unused footage of Seinfeld that they have lying around, then use it to digitally insert him into every single show on the network. (Yes, they do show examples; no, I’m not going to tell you which shows you’ll get to see him in.) Unfortunately, the problem is that Jack has decided that it’ll be much easier to move forward with the idea if they just, uh, don’t tell Jerry ’til after it’s already on the air. Seems easy enough, since the Seinfeld family is supposedly out of the country on vacation…except that – cue the dramatic music – they’re actually not!
My only complaint about the season premiere is that things mostly start out focusing on the same main triad of characters: Jack, Liz (Tina Fey), and Tracy. Not that they’re not funny, but it’s like I said in my review of the Season 1 DVD set: it’s the episodes that explore the intricacies of the ensemble that prove the most memorable. Yes, it stands to reason that we’d want to know what Liz did during the summer hiatus – even if no-one on her staff does – but the goings-on of the lesser members of the cast are barely touched on…well, except for Jenna. that is. But the fact that the explanation about what’s kept her occupied for the last few months (and the effect it’s had on her) is one of the funniest parts of the episode really only goes to prove my point. C’mon, let’s spread the wealth a little more for the rest of the cast, shall we?
Well, let’s blame that on the fact that everyone’s storylines probably got shrunk as a result of trying to be sure Mr. Seinfeld scored enough face time in the episode and just hope for the best, shall we? In the meantime, have a look at a wrap-up of Liz Lemon’s worst dating experiences from Season 1…
When we last left Earl, he was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Yep, that’s right: Earl’s desire to keep doing right by karma led him to accept the blame for something that his ex-wife, Joy, had done, so that she could stay out of jail, have her half-sister’s baby, and continue to raise her other two kids. A noble gesture, to be sure. Too bad the end result didn’t work out so well for Earl. Or Randy. Or Joy and Darnell, either, for that matter. In fact, really, the only person who didn’t end up suffering from the effects of Earl’s departure is Catalina…which might explain why she has precious little to do during the first two episodes of Season 3 of “My Name Is Earl” except give life to a mustachioed hand puppet named Little Earl.
These first two episodes – a 2-parter entitled “My Name Is Inmate #28301-16” – are, unfortunately, pretty disappointing…and, worse, the disappointment begins within only a few seconds of the first episode. Despite the season finale ending with the discovery that Earl was going to be sharing a cell with his old buddy Ralph (Giovanni Ribisi), the season premiere begins with the realization that we probably won’t be seeing a whole lot of Ralph after all. Actually, though, that’s really just a minor quibble; after all, we do hear Ralph, and when we do, you’ll get at least one big laugh. The biggest problem is that this season is starting off feeling way too real.
The characters on “My Name Is Earl” have always felt uncomfortably close to people I’ve known in my life – I’m from Virginia, so, believe me, I’ve known and loved my fair share of white trash in my time…and, to a certain extent, I still do – so that reality isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m really speaking of two aspects: Earl struggling to survive in prison, and Randy struggling to survive without Earl. There’s certainly comedy to be had in having Earl behind bars, but when there are people getting shivved, you’re definitely playing closer to the “maybe not as ‘ha-ha’ funny as it’s supposed to be” side of things. But, really, the worst part is Randy, and how incredibly stupid he’s gotten just over the course of the past few months. Yeah, he was dumb before, but now the writers have got him walking into oncoming traffic when there are clearly cars whizzing by him. It’s actually reached a level where you feel bad for the guy, where he’s crossed the line from “dumb” into “clinically retarded,” and that’s just not funny. It’s clear that the writers wanted to play up his stupidity so that it would show just how useless he is without Earl, but it’s just not working at all.
The producers have admitted that they’re in no rush to get Earl out of jail, and it’s clear that they’re at least going to try to stick to their guns, but after last season’s successful use of plots arcs like Randy and Catalina’s Green-card marriage and Joy’s 3-strikes-and-you’re-in-prison situation (not to mention her pregnancy), things were really looking good for “My Name Is Earl,” and it’s a shame to think that they’re going to screw with the dynamic in such a major way…especially how poorly the first fruits of this season have turned out.
But to end this write-up on a positive note, the most hopeful thing to emerge from the show’s camp for the new season is this:
You wouldn’t have expected a show about an egotistical doctor who’s not only a curmudgeon but also a full-fledged drug addict to have a whole lot of staying power. In fact, way back when I received an advance copy of the pilot for “House,” these were the opening lines of my review: “Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Gregory House isn’t particularly likable; in fact, at times, he presents himself to others in such a fashion that it’s almost impossible to stand him.” The entire thrust of my piece was that the show was great and deserved to be a success, but I was highly skeptical that viewers would be willing to embrace such a unabashed anti-hero.*
Whoops. My bad.
(Actually, I hadn’t looked at that review since I wrote it, but now that I’ve scanned it again, I’d like to share another line, one which I’m quite proud of: “[House is] consistently grumpy as hell, walks with the aid of a cane as a result of a past malady, and pops Vicodin like they’re the jellybeans that he surreptitiously prescribes to a hypochondriac in the pilot episode.” Damn, you’d think I actually wrote for a living or something!)
By the end of Season 3, Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) had managed to alienate his team – Drs. Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer) – to the point that all three of them had made the decision to get the hell out; he also hadn’t exactly endeared himself to Drs. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) or Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), either, but at least they had the advantage of not having to work directly under him. As Season 4 picks up, House is still flying solo, which is bad on a couple of different levels; for one, he can’t accomplish nearly as much without a team, and, worse, if he continues to be able to work just as well without a team, his ego will inflate to a heretofore-unimagined size. (Unsurprisingly, it’s Wilson who’s most concerned about the latter, since he pretty much lives to keep House’s ego in check.)
After realizing that isn’t nearly as easy to maintain his reputation as a genius without having other doctors to bounce theories off of (and finding that the janitor’s ideas just don’t match up to those of Foreman, Cameron, and Chase), House eventually concedes that it might be worth his while to dig up a new team…but, unsurprisingly, he does it on his own terms, weeding out the possible candidates by using a method that’s equally reminiscent of “Survivor” and “The Paper Chase.” Here’s a hint about the proceedings: he refuses to learn any of the candidates’ names…but he finds a way around needing to. By the way, one of the would-be team members is Dr. Lawrence Kutner, played by Kal Penn; we’re not telling whether he makes the cut or not, but we will say that, even in the one episode in which we’ve seen him, he’s already been better utilized than he was in his entire stint on “24.”
Will we see House’s old team again? Obviously. Will we see them sooner than later? Probably, since they’re still in the opening credits. The bigger question is, when we see them, will we really be seeing them? (Wow, how enigmatic of me.) Funny thing is, I’m not even in all that big a hurry to see them pop up; watching House interacting with fresh meat…uh, I mean, with new doctors…is a lot of fun. Also, I’m a little nervous about watching Chase and Cameron together again; Spencer and Morrison had been a couple in real life as well, but they recently broke up, and to see them still playing a couple on the show…I mean, how can you not think, “Wow, that’s gotta be weird for them”? I am, however, interested to see how the producers are planning to bring Foreman back into the mix, given that his departure seemed so definitive. I’d like to think it’d be too predictable for him to just realize that he misses the medical challenges he had while working with House, so I’m hoping they at least have some kind of twist to it. (I’m thinking maybe it’ll have something to do with Foreman’s mom, who’s battling mental deterioration…but that’s just a guess.)
Whatever else happens this season, at the very least, things are definitely starting strong for “House.”
Here’s a teaser:
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