Category: TV Dramas (Page 155 of 235)

A quick comment about the next two Friday nights

January 4, 2008 /

Y’know, it’s a good thing I checked out those two episodes of “Gossip Girl” before I checked out the next two episodes of “Friday Night Lights.” If I’d seen the latter first, I’d’ve probably used the former as a point of comparison for how impossible it is for the average kid to relate to most characters on TV; the latter, however, is about as real as any show this side of…well, actually, I don’t even have a ready point of comparison. That’s how realistic they feel to me…though I’m willing to concede that maybe it’s just the handheld camerawork that makes it feel more real. (At the very least, it gives the show a look that’s unique to most anything else on the air at the moment.)

My opinion on “FNL” can’t be trusted as much as our dedicated blogger, Mr. John Paulsen, who’s been in the show’s camp from the beginning, but I’ll just say that these two episodes – tonight’s and next week’s – made for great viewing, with both the teen and adult storylines unfolding in a manner that was consistently enthralling, both in the dramatic and the comedic sides of things. The teen characters have the kind of problems that adults will remember from their own youth, such as a girl trying to accept that the best person for her isn’t necessarily the school matinee idol, and the adult issues – like, for instance, Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), dealing with her sister’s refusal to realize that she’s being a nuisance of a houseguest – are pretty damned familiar, too. And damned if it isn’t true what people have been telling me all along: there’s precious little football in “Friday Night Lights.” And when there finally is a big game, which happens in next week’s episode, it brings with it one of those great “oh, shit!” moments that you don’t need to be a sports fan to appreciate.

Hmmm…looks like Season 1 of the show is only $18.99 over at Amazon. Maybe it’s time to finally take the plunge and get the full experience of what everyone’s been telling me is one of the best shows on TV…?

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Friday Night Lights, Reviews, TV, TV Dramas

“Law & Order” is back? Really…?

January 3, 2008 /

Yes, really. And I can imagine you might be a little skeptical, but if you read on, you’ll see that I started out that way, too.

The problem with “Law & Order” being in eternal re-runs over on TNT is that you’ve still got people out there who think Lenny Briscoe is still alive, well, and walking the beat. He’s not, of course, and the show’s managed to go on without him, but it has to be said that the death of the great Jerry Orbach really sucked a lot of the spirit out of the show; the attempt to fill his substantial void with Dennis Farina was well-intentioned, but Farina never really meshed with Jesse L. Martin (a.k.a. Detective Ed Green), and when he departed after two seasons, his replacement – Nina Cassady (Milena Govich) – worked out even less successfully. And, look, I’m a huge “L&O” fan from way back, but I gotta be honest with you: I haven’t really watched the show regularly since early 2005, back when Michael Imperioli did a four-episode stint alongside Farina while Martin took a break to film “Rent.” In fact, I’m pretty sure that the only new episode of the show I’ve seen since then was the one when Chevy Chase guest-starred as an anti-Semitic actor who bore an in-no-way-coincidental similarity to one M. Gibson.

It may sound like I’m damning the series with faint praise, then, when I say that the new season of “Law & Order” is shaping up to be the best since Orbach’s death, but believe me when I tell you that if you’ve been a longtime fan of the show but haven’t been watching it lately, now’s the time to come back.

Green’s got himself a new partner: Cyrus Lupo, played by Jeremy Sisto. The two of them have an instant chemistry that harks back to the classic “L&O” era when Briscoe and Mike Logan (Chris Noth) first got teamed up together. Lupo’s coming off a stint as an investigator of terrorist groups, so he’s used to being able to work a little outside the lines with his actions, but while Green’s not incapable of looking the other way when he thinks it might help a case, he’s not a guy who actively flirts with insubordination. they don’t necessarily mesh 100%, but it’s clear that they’re both good cops at heart, and each just needs to get the feel for what the other’s capable of. Sisto’s smart-ass one-liners are straight from the Briscoe playbook, and, man, it’s good to see a return to that laugh-to-keep-from-crying dialogue again.

Over on the “Law” side of things, there’s also been a bit of transition, thanks to the departure of Fred Thompson from the cast in order to pursue a run for the Presidency; as a result, Thompson’s character – Arthur Branch – has stepped down from his position as D.A., and now filling those lofty shoes is our man Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). I think I speak for most longtime “L&O” fans when I say that it’s about damned time. Not everyone would agree with us, however, including those in the government who view McCoy as a tree-hugging hippie liberal, thanks to his various controversial positions over the years.

Replacing McCoy as Executive Asst. D.A. is Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), who’s never had any real dealings with Jack and, as he quickly discovers, doesn’t really get along with him. The relationship between Cutter and McCoy is at best tense and at worst downright hostile, which makes for a different and unique dynamic.

NBC’s going all out to make sure people know how great this new season is, sending out no less than the first five episodes for critics to screen. It’s a savvy move, actually, since any “L&O” fan worth their salt is gonna get sucked into a marathon before they know what’s happened to them…and, yes, that’s exactly what happened to me. The show’s even been rescued from its Friday night death sentence and been returned to a plum 10 PM timeslot on Wednesday nights, which means that it might well be rediscovered by those fans who had better things to do on the first night of their weekend than sit home and watch TV.

I say it again: “Law & Order” is back. Go forth and set your TiVo right this second, lest you miss out.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, TV, TV Dramas

“Gossip Girl” Revisited

January 3, 2008 /

It’s been awhile since I last checked in with “Gossip Girl,” and, it must be said, I haven’t regretted it a bit. I checked out the pilot, and while I was unimpressed with the show’s lack of humor, I was even less impressed with the way the series was geared toward a teenage audience while displaying a heavy emphasis on all the activities no parent wants their teenager kids to rush into. Let the kids have their fun, but I don’t have to watch it, y’know…?

In fact, here’s what I said at the time:

Remember that “Simpsons” episode when Homer praised the Smashing Pumpkins for their effect on his kids because, “thanks to your gloomy music, they’ve finally stopped dreaming of a future I can’t possibly provide”? Well, the rich, spoiled punks on this show are offering the antithesis of that. Plus, critics with teenage daughters are already screaming about how they wouldn’t want their kids to watch this sex, drug, and underage-drinking laden show…which probably means that those same kids are going to be want to tune in every week. Awesome: here comes the future…and it’s gonna suck.

Still, when the publicist at The CW (hi, Suzanne!) offered up a screener of the Jan. 2 and Jan. 9 episodes of the show, I figured, okay, fair enough, maybe it’s time to give it another shot. And while I still probably won’t be tuning in on a weekly basis, I’m willing to concede that, at the very least, this pair of episodes finds the show having absolutely soared in quality since its pilot.

Okay, maybe it hasn’t soared in quality. But, still, I was way more entertained with each of these two hours of television that I was that first episode, and it’s clearly not because I know the characters better now, given that I haven’t tuned in since then. No, it’s a combination of the writing being better and, half a season in, I’m sure it’s also to do with the actors being more comfortable with their roles now. These are being hyped as the two best episodes of the series to date, but I can’t speak to that; I will say, however, that the current drought of new episodes of any show is enough to affect one’s perception of an episode’s quality. Still, as teen drama plots go, last night’s saga – the prep school kids get busted for having a pool party on campus when one of them gets knocked unconscious and goes tumbling into the deep end – was good stuff. Next week focuses on a pregnancy scare, with Gossip Girl helping to spread the word about who’s potentially in possession of a bun in the oven, and you can’t go wrong with a plot revolving around that.

It’s not out of place to call “Gossip Girl” the “90210” of the 21st century…or maybe the “O.C.” of the latter half of the ’00s. Whatever the case, it’s clear that while the primary audience might be teens, the producers are still trying to entertain their parents, too; the bit I did love in the pilot, about Rufus Humphrey being a member of a one-hit wonder band from the ’90s, is still alive and well, with one of the sniveling teens getting off a snide line about “your dad’s cassingle.” Ouch.

Okay, fine, you win: I’ll be adding “Gossip Girl” to my list of shows I’ll be investigating when its first season is released on DVD…and in the meantime, I might…maybe…try tuning in once in awhile before then.

But for the record, I still don’t think these kids are anything approaching good role models!

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

Journeyman 1.13 – “Perfidia”

December 20, 2007 /

So what do you say when a show is simply gone too soon? The “final” episode of “Journeyman” was a pretty fantastic exit for an ongoing piece of entertainment that was just getting started.

The episode opened with Dan having traveled to a mental hospital not to far in the past – only September of ’07. There he meets Evan, a man who claimed to be a fellow traveler. Of course, since he’s in the looney bin, his assertions are questionable. He tells Dan that he’s there to help him escape and meet up with a beautiful woman in a photograph. Evan also tells Dan that he no longer travels due to the meds he’s on, which literally keep him grounded. After some convincing, Dan provides a distraction, Evan escapes and Dan immediately travels back to the present. There he discovers Evan was killed shortly after his escape by jaywalking. So it’s back to September…

Meanwhile, Jack is busy causing a stink with Elliot Langley, trying anything he can to connect with the guy and get him to admit that he knows Dan and something about his travels. Katie is getting bad marital advice from her sister and Livia’s just plain getting married.

The story of Evan was a tragic thing of beauty. All he wanted was to reconnect – even if only for a moment – with the wife he sacrificed during his travels. He sacrificed their entire marriage so that she could live a full life, while it turned out that the time line wasn’t so kind to Evan: he was destined to die on the same day no matter what Dan and Livia did to try to help him.

In the episode’s final moments, Dan and Langley finally have a confrontation of sorts. Elliot admitted to not only knowing Dan, but also knowing a fair amount about what was going with him and that it would be dangerous to continue on with an acquaintance. He also told Dan that the “system” was breaking down and that he was the last traveler. Dan replied, rather Yodaishly, “No, there’s another one.” He of course was speaking of Livia. He then went home to Katie and stood his ground, saying that even though through meds he too felt he could ground himself, that it wasn’t that path he wanted to choose. Rather ironic and sad that while the character of Dan Vassar chose to continue traveling, NBC is the meds that are going to keep him from doing so.

Is “Perfidia” an appropriate ending for “Journeyman?” Well, it wasn’t ideal and certainly had that feeling that there was plenty more story to tell, but since it’s the only ending we’re likely to get, it served its function and didn’t leave viewers hanging in any major way. One of the great little moments of the piece was Dan seeing himself traveling for the first time in the cab. It’d sure be great if someone would greenlight a “Journeyman” miniseries to give a proper ending to the story, although that’s highly unlikely.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Journeyman, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Journeyman 1.12: “The Hanged Man”

December 18, 2007 /

It’s all beginning to feel a bit anticlimactic, isn’t it? Oh, not to imply that the show’s going downhill for its two-part finale, but rather the knowing that this is probably “it.” Good thing NBC found a place on the schedule for 1.13 as this would’ve been a dreadful place to stop.

In some ways, “The Hanged Man” was the strongest episode of “Journeyman” yet, because its premise was so simple and, at the same time, so powerful. What’s a time traveler to do when a minor mistake in the past erases one of the most important people in his life in the present – and replaces them with someone of equal value? That’s what Dan had to face when he discovered upon returning from a mission that his son, Zack, had been erased from existence and replaced with a daughter. And of course the timeline had changed to accommodate the rewrite for everyone else as well, including Katie, who was aghast at the idea that Dan might try to take away their daughter and replace her with a son she never knew. And Dan will now live the haunting memory of a daughter he only knew for a day and was responsible for “killing.”

Here’s the strongest example yet of Dan’s awareness of the changing timelines, while the rest of world is unable to see the major shifts in the world around them. And it’s a huge shame because through this episode it’s become all too obvious the lengths to which this series could go if only it got a chance to do so. The character of the psychic was also a noteworthy addition, because she was present and serving the same function in both timelines. And of course she dropped a major doozy when she spoke of Dan’s birthdate and how it tied into his special abilities – and that Livia’s birthdate was also special. And exactly how does a genuine, functioning psychic play into the “Journeyman” storyline?

In the end, Dan went to see Elliott Langley (Tom Everett) and we were left with a massive cliffhanger as Langley refused to speak with Dan and claimed to not even know who he was. Timey-wimey? Or just plain subterfuge? I guess we’ll find something out on Wednesday night, but whatever it is, I doubt seriously that it’s going to be a proper end to this series. We’re going to be left dangling with promises of what will never be.

Journeyman, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

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