Category: TV Dramas (Page 200 of 235)

TV DVD QT, Vol. 4

December 21, 2006 /

MacGyver: The Complete Final Season – I’m no Patty or Selma Bouvier, but I understand what people enjoy about “MacGyver.” You can’t deny the inherent coolness of a guy who can take a paperclip, a wad of gum, three sheets of toilet paper, and a sprig of parsley and make a functional radio transmitter. By this seventh and final year of the show, however, two things are woefully apparent. The first is that Richard Dean Anderson’s hairdresser had lost control of the man’s mane; the thing is on the verge of getting a co-starring role, so prominent is it. The other is that when you have to resort to a two-part episode where MacGyver dreams he’s gone back in time to the days of King Arthur, it’s time to call it quits. Fortunately, the producers of the show agreed with my position on this matter.

The Golden Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Say what you will about “The Golden Girls,” but in addition to being a guilty pleasure, it also gave a lot of actors who weren’t exactly spring chickens a chance to appear on TV again. This season found Don Ameche, Cesar Romero, Harold Gould, Hal Linden, Bill Dana, and Alan King popping up either as relatives or dates of the girls, and it also saw Debbie Reynolds showing up as a potential new roommate. (Dorothy was planning to remarry her ex-husband, Stan, but it didn’t take.) Fans will enjoy the bonus feature, a 20-minute segment from a Museum of TV and Radio appreciation of the show where Rue McLanahan and Betty White detail the origins of the series.

Charmed: The Complete Sixth Season – And now, the polar opposite of the Golden Girls. The reality of the matter, folks, is that no matter how hot Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs may be…and they are damned hot, my friends…I will never, ever forgive the WB for canceling “Angel” but allowing this show to stay on the air. It’s not bad; it just tends toward being a bit silly. That having been said, having these three witches appear in tight outfits and hot costumes in the various episodes makes it much easier to watch. (Milano spends an enjoyable amount of time in a bikini top during this season’s first episode.) It’s still a chick show at heart…the longest running female drama in TV history, in fact…but it gets short shrift for its DVD releases; there’s not so much as the first special feature here.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Otherwise known as the last season of the show that purist fans will ever watch. This is the year that starts with Lorelai and Rory not talking and Rory taking a break from college in order to do community service for stealing a yacht with her boyfriend, Logan…and it ends with Logan leaving Rory to take a job in London and Lorelai sleeping with Christopher a.k.a. Rory’s dad. And somewhere in between, there are guest appearances from Joe Pernice, Sparks, Sonic Youth, and Paul Anka. What’s not to love? Season 7, apparently…but that’s just the word on the street; I won’t watch it ‘til it’s out on DVD.

Home Improvement: The Complete Fifth Season – Yawn. More tool-related shenanigans with Tim Allen…and, again, the only extra is a bunch of bloopers.

J.A.G.: The Complete Second Season – Please offer a hearty hello to Catherine Bell, who joined the series during this, its second year. More military courtroom action for your viewing enjoyment, plus audio commentary and two featurettes (one about the season itself, the other about the J.A.G. Corps in the real world).

Stay tuned for at least one more volume…possibly two more volumes…of TV DVD QT’s before the end of 2006. I’d like to not start 2007 with a gargantuan backlog, thank you very much…

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

Battlestar Galactica: “The Eye of Jupiter”

December 18, 2006 /

I’m really disappointed in Lee. This little affair he’s having with Cara is wreaking havoc on both of their marriages. I sort of expect such behavior from Starbuck because she’s generally pretty unstable and doesn’t always think things through, but Lee should know better. It’s not like he’s desperate; he already has a great wife in Dee, who is a much, much better catch. But it seems like he’s in love/lust with Cara and he truly wants to be with her. She, of course, applies her warped moral code to the situation saying that she can’t divorce her husband because “marriage is a sacrament.” Please. If she really believed that she wouldn’t be running around behind her hubby’s back.

Until I saw the “previously” scenes at the beginning of the episode, I had forgotten about the baby Hera. There hasn’t been any mention of her for some time, but now that Boomer and Athena have met, the cat’s out of the bag. I can understand why Athena would be pissed about Roslin’s secret, but she has to understand the logic behind it. Adama was none too pleased to discover the truth – but was he upset about the President’s actions or the fact that he was left out of the decision?

Down on the planet, it occurred to me that for being on tight rations for the last few weeks, the Chief certainly doesn’t look like he’s missed any meals. My first thought when he found the secret chamber was that maybe he stumbled on some form of alien life. Throughout the entire series, there hasn’t been a single mention of the possibility of non-human/non-Cylon life in the universe. I wonder if the series will ever explore that possibility.

The scene where the Cylons came with Baltar to Galactica to talk terms was pretty tense. I’m not sure why Caprica (Baltar’s #7) wasn’t with them – as it stood, Biers and Cavil did most of the talking.

That led into an intense sequence where Lee butted heads with Sam (Cara’s husband) over forming a rescue party for Cara (who will no doubt make it through unscathed) as the Cylons marched on their position. The Admiral is set to nuke the planet so that the Cylons don’t discover the chamber. I have a feeling the Chief will figure out the secret of the Eye before that happens.

Battlestar Galactica, External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

“The Lost Room” worth a look

December 14, 2006 /

I’m almost through the first of three two-hour installments of the Sci-Fi miniseries “The Lost Room,” which stars Peter Krause (“Six Feet Under”) as a detective investigating a mysterious hotel key. It turns out that the motel key can open any door in the world, but first leads the user to a motel room where something “very bad” happened.

I don’t want to give anything else away, but suffice to say, anyone who likes a good sci-fi tale will probably enjoy the first two hours. It looks like Sci-Fi is going to air all three installments in a row on Sunday (12/17) night.

I’ve witnessed a few bad Sci-Fi movies in the past, but this isn’t one of them, which is probably why Krause and Juliana Margulies (“ER”) signed on. I’m really starting to dig original cable programming…”Battlestar Galactica,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Shield,” “Rescue Me,” “The Closer” and “Eureka,” just to name a few. These are good (to great) shows that wouldn’t survive on regular broadcast television.

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell” is good TV

December 13, 2006 /

I just mowed through the first four episodes (on DVD) of Showtime’s original series, “Sleeper Cell,” and I have to say, I’m very impressed. It follows an undercover FBI agent (Michael Ealy) as he infiltrates an Al-Qaeda-esque terrorist cell operating in Los Angeles. The antagonist is the cell leader (Oded Fehr) who constantly keeps the undercover agent on his toes as he plans an attack on the city that he calls “Judgment Day.”

It feels like “The Shield” and a more realistic version of “24.” The first season is out on DVD and Showtime is currently showing the second season on consecutive nights.

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

“Heroes”: Able to leap from gay to straight in just ten episodes!

December 13, 2006 /

Fans of NBC’s “Heroes” may be surprised to learn that the character of Zach, the recently brainwashed best friend to indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet, is not gay.

He used to be gay, at least according to this interview with series creator Tim Kring…but now the official line [beware possible spoiler if you click the link] of both NBC and the management of actor Thomas Dekker (who plays Zach) is that Zach is, was, and always will be as straight as the day is long.

So, what caused the shift? Is Dekker nervous about being typecast at such a young age? Is his management driving the change? Or is NBC brass still uptight about portraying gay characters on television — despite the success of that little NBC show called “Will & Grace”? You know, the one that ran for eight years, won over a dozen Emmys, and pulled in millions of dollars in advertising revenue…all while featuring multiple gay characters front and center?

Whatever the reason, the news is disappointing. The character has been established a certain way, and the show’s ratings and advertiser support to date would suggest that Zach’s sexual orientation has been a non-issue. Ironically, it will likely now become an issue, simply by virtue of the network’s having called attention to it.

Sigh.

Actors, Gossip, Heroes, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

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